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The  Bishop  Paddock  Lectures,  1884 


THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY 


AT  THE  CLOSE  OF  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTUEY 


BY 

RT.  REV.  A.  N.  LITTLEJOHN,  D.D.,  LL.D. 

BISHOP  OF  LONG  ISLAND 


NEW  YORK 
THOMAS    WHITTAKER 

2  AND  3  BIBLE  HOUSE 

1884 


Copyright,  1884, 
By  THOMAS  WHITTAKER. 


JRANKLIN  press: 

BAKD,  AVERT,  AND  COMPANY, 

BOSTON. 


THE 

BISHOP    PADDOCK    LECTUEES. 


In  the  summer  of  the  year  1880,  George  A.  Jarvis  of 
Brooklyn,  N.Y.,  moved  by  his  sense  of  the  great  good  which 
might  thereby  accrue  to  the  cause  of  Christ,  and  to  the 
Church  of  which  he  was  an  ever-grateful  member,  gave  to 
the  General  Theological  Seminary  of  the  Protestant  Episco- 
pal Church  certain  securities,  exceeding  in  value  eleven 
thousand  dollars,  for  the  foundation  and  maintenance  of  a 
Lectureship  in  said  seminary. 

Out  of  love  to  a  former  pastor  and  enduring  friend,  the 
Right  Rev.  Benjamin  Henry  Paddock,  D.D.,  Bishop  of 
Massachusetts,  he  named  the  foundation  "The  Bishop 
Paddock  Lectureship." 

The  deed  of  trust  declares  that, — 

' '  The  subjects  of  the  lectures  shall  be  such  as  appertain  to  the 
defence  of  the  religion  of  Jesus  Christ,  as  revealed  in  the  Holy 
Bihle^  and  illustrated  in  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer,  against  the 
varj'ing  errors  of  the  day,  whether  materialistic,  rationalistic,  or 
professedly  religious,  and  also  to  its  defence  and  confirmation  in 
respect  of  such  central  truths  as  the  Trinity,  the  Atonement,  Jus- 
tification, and  the  Inspiration  of  the  Word  of  God;  and  of  such 
central  facts  as  the  Church's  Divine  Order  and  Sacraments,  her 
historical  Reformation,  and  her  rights  and  powers  as  a  pure  and 
national  Church.  And  other  subjects  may  be  chosen  if  unanimously 
approved  by  the  Board  of  Appointment  as  being  both  timely  and 
also  within  the  true  intent  of  this  Lectureship." 

Under  the  appointment  of  the  board  created  by  the  trust, 
the  Right  Rev.  A.  N.  Littlejohn,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  Bishop  of 
Long  Island,  delivered  the  Lectures  for  the  year  1884,  con- 
tained in  this  volume. 


PEEFACE. 


The  subject  chosen  for  these  Lectures  is,  on  the  face  of 
it,  a  practical  one.  It  will  deal  with  questions  of  authority, 
office,  administration,  conduct,  and  character.  It  will  show 
how  earthly  stewards,  human  trustees,  have  used,  in  a  gen- 
eration of  unparalleled  activity  and  change,  the  Divine  gifts 
committed  to  them.  We  are  nearing  the  close  of  by  far 
the  most  eventful  of  the  Christian  centuries,  —  one  that 
includes  the  beginning  and  the  consummation  of  forces 
that  have  radically  modified  the  drift  of  modern  life,  and 
with  that  the  internal,  as  well  external,  relations  of  insti- 
tutions ordained  to  be  permanent  factors  in  the  training 
and  development  of  mankind.  It  is  of  the  utmost  practical 
moment,  that  we  see  as  clearly  as  we  can  the  effect  of  these 
forces  upon  the  most  obviously  and  vitally  representative 
agency  of  Christianity,  and  through  that  upon  Christianity 
itself.  But,  while  in  these  respects  intensely  practical,  the 
subject  will,  at  the  same  time,  oblige  us  to  consider  from 
the  Christian  standpoint  many  issues  yet  lying  within  the 
province  of  theory  and  opinion,  —  issues  which,  though  now 
wrapped  up  in  the  inner  thoughts  of  men,  may,  any  day,  leap 
forth  into  the  arena  of  agitation  and  controversy.  Indeed, 
it  will  be  impossible  to  conduct  with  any  degree  of  thor- 
oughness such  an  inquiry  as  is  here  proposed,  without  cross- 


viii  Preface, 

ing  at  many  angles  the  deeper  speculative  tendencies  of  the 
time.  There  could  scarcely  be  any  truer  test  of  what  is 
best  and  what  is  worst  in  these  tendencies,  than  the  influence 
which  they  have  already  begun  or  are  likely  to  exercise, 
upon  the  Office  and  Ministry  ordained  to  show  forth  and 
plead  for  the  Christ  unto  the  end  of  the  world. 

Of  the  twelve  Lectures  now  published,  five,  and  consider- 
able parts  of  the  others,  were  not  delivered,  for  lack  of  time ; 
though  the  continuity  of  the  series  was  maintained  by  pre- 
senting a   syllabus  of   each  lecture   or  part   of   a   lecture 

omitted. 

A.  N.  L. 


CONTENTS. 


LECTURE  I. 

THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY  AT  THE  BAR  OF  CRITICISM. 

PAOB. 

Why  the  Christian  Ministry  should  give  an  Account  of  its  Steward- 
ship at  this  Time.  —  Views  of  the  Present  Status  of  the  Ministry 
reducible  to  Three.  —  Alleged  Decline  of  Influence.  —  Power  dis- 
tinguished from  Influence.  —  The  Latter  takes  us  into  the  Province 
of  History  and  Experience.  —  Tone  of  Sentiment  now  Prevalent. — 
Changed  Relation  of  the  Clergy  to  Society  and  to  Liberal  and 
Popular  Education.  —  The  Ministry  and  the  Press.  —  The  Ministry 
no  longer  the  Chief  Dispenser  of  Charity.  —  The  Ministry  blamed 
(1)  for  adhering  to  any  Theology  not  approved  by  the  Modem 
Spirit,  (2)  for  an  Alleged  Decline  in  the  Power  of  the  Pulpit,  (3) 
for  its  Want  of  Readiness  to  endure  Hardship  and  Denial,  (4)  for 
Lack  of  Boldness  and  Independence  in  Thought  and  Action,  (5) 
for  allowing  the  Church  and  the  World  to  be  on  too  Good  Terms ; 
(6)  Charged  with  Feeble  and  Shallow  Methods  in  the  Cure  of 
Souls,  (7)  with  Lack  of  Enterprise,  and  a  Feeble  Faculty  of  Or- 
ganization; (8)  Faults  imputed  (a)  by  the  World  of  Letters  and 
Science,  (6)  by  the  World  of  Politics,  (c)  by  the  World  of  Social 
Reform.  —  These  Faults  examined,  and  shown  to  be  Exaggerated 
or  Groundless 1 

LECTURE  II. 

THE  CAUSES  THAT  HAVE   HINDERED  OR   IMPAIRED  THE 
INFLUENCE  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY. 

Declining  Faith  in  the  Supernatural.  —  Unscriptural  and  Unchurchly 
Notions. — Three  Characteristic  Fruits  of  them.  —  Primitive  and 


Contents. 


FA6B. 


Traditional  Teaching  in  its  most  Positive  Form  needful  to  People 
and  Clergy  if  the  Powers  of  the  Holy  Office  are  to  be  saved  from 
Decay  and  Disesteem. — Enormous  Development  of  Sectism. — 
Disastrous  to  the  Influence  of  the  Ministry.  —In  what  Ways  espe- 
cially so.  —The  Influence  of  the  Ministry  hindered  and  impaired 
by  the  Decay  of  Discipline.  —  Causes  of  this  Decay.  —  Evidences 
of  it  in  nearly  all  Branches  of  the  Church. —The  Discipline  of 
the  Early  and  the  Discipline  of  the  Modern  Church  compared. 
—  Why  has  the  Church  so  sadly  fallen  away  in  this  Regard?  — 
Special  Evils  inflicted  upon  the  Ministry 73 

LECTURE  III. 

EVIDENCES   OF   INTELLECTUAL   VIGOR  AND  ACTIVITY  IN 
THE  MINISTRY. 

The  Subject  of  Little  Interest  to  two  Extreme  Wings  of  the  Clerical 
Body.  —  Evidences  to  be  found  in  the  Deeper  and  more  Methodical 
Studies  of  the  Clergy.  —  In  Theology.  —  Movements  in  the  History 
of  Modern  Thought  adverse  to  the  Claims  of  Theology.  —  How 
These  have  been  met.  —Positivism.  — Its  Various  Phases.  —  The 
New  Philosophy  of  Herbert  Spencer.  — The  Several  Schools  of  Sub- 
jective Idealism.  — Physical  Science.  — The  Worst  Wounds  of  The- 
ology in  the  House  of  its  Friends.  —  Coleridge,  and  the  School  that 
sprang  from  him. — The  Literature  of  Scepticism.  —  What  the 
Theological  Mind  has  done.  —  Two  Objections.  —  Theology  shown 
to  be  (1)  a  Science,  (2)  to  be  the  Foremost  of  Sciences.  — Problem 
of  the  Limits  of  Human  Thought.  — What  the  Priesthood  has  done 
to  keep  alive  in  this  Age  the  Sense  of  the  Supernatural  as  a  Prac- 
tical Motive. —  The  Theistic  Argument. — Its  Various  Forms       .    114 

LECTURE  IV. 

THE  ACTIVITY  OF  THE  CLERICAL  OR  THEOLOGICAL  MIND 
IN  CHRISTIAN  AND  SCIENTIFIC  ETHICS. 

Christian  Morality  and  Christian  Theology.  —  Their  Organic  Connec- 
tion. —  Efforts  to  divorce  them.  — Efforts  to  absorb  the  One  in  the 
Other.  — Work  of  Christian  Teachers  as  Expounders  and  Defenders 
(1)  in  showing  the  Present  Attitude  of  Christian  Ethics  toward 


Contents.  xi 

PAOX. 

the  Ethics  of  Philosophy,  and  the  Indebtedness  of  the  Latter  to  the 
Former;  (2)  in  meeting  Charges  turning  upon  the  Alleged  Weak- 
nesses and  Defects  of  Christian  Ethics ;  (3)  in  establishing  the 
Grounds  of  Superiority  of  Christian  over  Natural  Ethics  in  the 
Development  and  Discipline  of  Character 171 

LECTURE  V. 

INTELLECTUAL    ACTIVITY    OP    THE    CLERGY    IN    APOLO- 
GETICS  AND  BIBLICAL  CRITICISM. 

Apologetics  now  a  Compact  Body  of  Learning  and  Logic. — Results 
reached.  —  The  Present  Aim  of  Apologetics.  —  Its  Methods. — 
External  Evidences,  their  Place  and  Value.  —  Biblical  Study  the 
most  Comprehensive  of  Intellectual  Pursuits.  —  What  it  has  ac- 
complished in  our  Day.  —  Biblical  Criticism,  when  it  began  in  the 
Modern  Sense.  —  Increased  Attention  to  the  Languages  of  the 
Bible. — Researches  and  Conclusions  touching  Inspiration. — The 
Canon  of  Holy  Scripture.  —  The  Text  of  Holy  Scripture.  —  "  The 
Higher  Criticism." — Its  Aim  and  Scope.  —  Historical  Retrospect. 

—  Contradictory  Conclusions.  —  Present  Outlook.  — Not  always  to 

be  Destructive.  —  Summary.  —  The  Moral  for  us      ...        .    207 

LECTURE  VL 

MATERIAL  AND  TRAINING  FOR  THE  MINISTRY. 

Material  not  what  it  ought  to  be.  —  Caiises  which  have  crippled  the 
Supply,  and  lowered  the  Standard. — Present  Methods  of  Train- 
ing. —  Poorly  Equipped  Schools.  —  The  Drift  and  Forms  of  Living 
Thought  not  suflBciently  cared  for.  —  How  this  can  be  done. — 
Protestant,  Roman,  and  Anglican  Methods  of  Training  compared. 

—  Virtues  and  Defects  of  our  own.  —  Low  Views  of  the  Morale  of 
the  Ministry.  —  Our  Young  Life  in  training  for  the  Ministry  to  be 
lifted  up  to  a  Purer  and  Loftier  Standard  of  Thought  and  Feeling    .    241 

LECTURE  VII. 

PREACHING. 

Undue  Craving  for  Popularity. —Adulterations. —Originality.  — The 
Dramatic  Tendency.  —  Humor.  —  Causes  of  Declining  Interest.  ^ 


xii  Contents. 

FAQB. 

Hold  upon  the  Common  Mind  which  Nothing  can  shake.  —Weak 
and  Barren  Use  of  the  Holy  Scriptures.  — Consequences. —En-  , 
forced  Brevity  of  Sermons.  —  Individualism.  —  Doctrinal  Vague- 
ness. —  New  Cycle  of  Eeligious  Thought.  —  Its  Influence.  —  The 
Teacher  in  a  Dogmatic  Church  must  be  a  Believer  in  a  Dogmatic 
Faith 265 

LECTURE   VIII. 

THE  CLERGY  AS  EDUCATORS. 

Not  a  Waste  of  Time  to  discuss  the  Subject.  —  Unwise  Attitude  of 
the  Church.  —  Principles  that  underlie  the  Claims  of  the  Clergy 
as  a  Teaching  Order  in  the  Work  of  Popular  Education.  —  Subject 
viewed  from  a  National  Standpoint.  —  Highest  Eight  of  the  Indi- 
vidual not  provided  for.  —  Religious  Training  having  ceased  in 
the  Schools  of  the  Nation,  Moral  Training  is  neglected.  —  The 
Nation  educating  only  a  Fraction  of  its  own  Life.  —  A  Ee-action 
inevitable.  —  The  Church's  Duty  to  prepare  for  it   ....    296 

LECTURE  IX. 

IMPROVED  METHODS  IN  THE  CURE  OF  SOULS. 

What  the  Cure  of  Souls  in  the  Catholic,  Scriptural  Sense  implies.  — 
Little  of  it  in  this  Sense.  —  The  Clergy  inefficient.  —  The  People 
estranged.  —  The  Causes  historically  traced. — What  is  needed  to 
effect  a  Change  for  the  Better.  —  The  Subject  to  be  regarded  from 
Another  and  Higher  Point  of  View.  —How  affected  by  the  Drift 
of  Modem  Thought. — Deeper  and  Truer  Teaching  as  to  the  Na- 
ture of  Moral  Evil,  and  of  the  Soul's  Relations  to  it.  —  Special 
Training  of  the  Priesthood  for  the  Guidance  and  Care  of  Individual 
Souls.  — Casuistry. — Its  Eelation  to  Ethics.  —  A  Manual  needed. 
—  Principles  to  govern  in  the  Composition  of  it.  —  Conclusion       .    313 

LECTURE  X. 

DOGMATIC   TEACHING   AND  THE  PRIMARY  ENDS  OF  THE 

GOSPEL. 

More  not  less  Dogmatic  Teaching  required.  —  Aversion  to  Dogma 
explained.  —  Dogmas  that  excite,  and  Dogmas  that  escape  this 


Contents.  xiii 

PASS. 

Aversion.  —  The  Uses  served  by  Dogma.  —  The  Dogmatic  Decis- 
ions and  Definitions  of  the  Early  Councils  necessary  to  guard  the 
Complete  Doctrine  of  the  Second  Adam.  —  Various  Ways  in  wliich 
the  Church  has  disintegrated  or  diluted  her  Dogmatic  Teach- 
ing. —  The  World's  Religious  Life  changed,  not  by  Ethical  or  Sen- 
timental, but  by  Dogmatic  Preaching.  —  Primary  and  Secondary 
Ends  of  the  Gospel  compared.  —  Tendency  now  to  substitute  the 
Latter  for  the  Former.  —  The  Effect  of  this  on  the  Priesthood       .    328 

LECTURE   XL 

THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY  AND  "THE  NEW   THEOLOGY." 

Claims  of  the  New  Theology.  —  Its  Arraignment  of  the  Early  Latin 
Theology.  —  Greeks  and  Latins  held  substantially  the  same  View 
of  the  Divine  Immanence.  —  The  "Renaissance"  View  of  it  and 
of  Human  Nature. — Sources  of  this  View. — Alexandria  and 
Antioch.  —  Particulars  Illustrative  of  the  Temper  and  Attitude  of 
the  New  Theology.  —  Traditional  Consensus.  —  The  Scriptures.  — 
Solidarity  of  the  Race.  —  Gospel  of  the  Secular  Life.  —  Sacred  and 
Secular  all  One  and  the  Same. — How  Christianity  ought  to  be 
presented  to  this  Age.  —  The  Universal  Priesthood  the  only  Priest- 
hood. —  The  Sacraments  to  serve  Moral  and  Rational  Uses.  —  The 
Church  not  a  Divine  Institution,  but  a  Social  State.  —  Conception 
of  God's  Mode  of  dealing  with  Sin.  —  The  Atonement.  — Influence 
of  these  Views  upon  the  Christian  Ministry 349 

LECTURE  XIL 

CHARACTER. 

Character  needed  to  work  upon  Character.  —  Type  of  Character  in- 
herent in  the  Ministry  the  Gift  of  Pentecost.  —  The  Ideal  of  it 
behind  us.  —  Priestly  Character  amid  all  its  Variations  has  never 
forgotten  this  Ideal.  —  To  be  studied  under  the  Twofold  Light  of 
this  Ideal  and  of  its  Providential  Relations  to  the  Present  and 
the  near  Future.  — Salient  Features  of  Both  placed  side  by  side.  — 
In  what  Directions  Priestly  Character  needs  to  be  developed  and 
strengthened  to  meet  the  Wants  of  our  Time.  —  The  one  Source 
■  of  its  Wider  and  Nobler  Influence.  —  Conclusion    ....    393 


LECTURE  I. 

THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY  AT  THE  BAR  OP  CRITICISM. 

The  centuries  are  only  so  many  chapters  in  the 
volume  of  time.  They  conveniently  mark  oiF  the  his- 
toric spaces  behind  us,  for  purposes  of  observation  and 
study.  But  for  the  breaks  and  rests  they  supply,  events 
would  be  without  grouping  or  perspective,  and  the  past 
would  close  in  after  us  like  a  single  horizon  on  a 
boundless  plain.  And  yet,  however  they  serve  our  con- 
venience, they  are  of  our  own  making  and  arrangement. 
The  world's  life  and  movement  have  in  them  no  corre- 
sponding chapters.  The  forces  that  govern  them  have 
as  little  regard  for  our  modes  of  scoring  the  lapses  of 
time  as  the  organic  activities  of  our  bodies  have  for 
the  great  days  in  our  civic  or  ecclesiastical  calendar. 
My  theme,  therefore,  "The  Christian  Ministry  at  the 
Close  of  the  Nineteenth  Century,"  neither  asserts  nor 
implies  any  relation  of  cause  and  effect  between  the 
Christian  Ministry  and  the  close  of  this  centuij;  but 
is  intended  rather  to  call  attention  to  the  fact,  that,  as 
we  are  nearing  the  end  of  one  of  the  larger  measure- 
ments of  time  recognized  by  history,  it  is  the  dictate  of 
an  intelligent  curiosity  as  well  as  of  a  sober  Christian 
thoughtfulness,  to  inquire  how  it  has  fared  with   this 


2       The  Christian  Ministry  at  the  Bar  of  Criticism. 

God-given  but  man-kept  agency;  what  is  said  of  it  by 
others ;  what  it  has  to  say  of  and  for  itself. 

This  is  not  only  the  last,  but,  as  commonly  believed, 
it  is  the  most  remarkable,  of  all  the  centuries.  Moved 
by  this  beUef,  the  minds  of  men  in  all  the  higher  walks 
of  thought  are  now  turning  aside  from  special  studies, 
to  look  at  the  mould  and  drift  of  the  age  taken  as  a 
whole.  The  sciences  of  mind  and  matter,  of  society 
and  civil  government,  of  law  and  medicine,  the  arts  of 
utility  and  the  arts  of  imagination,  the  skilled  indus- 
tries of  the  soil,  the  sea,  and  the  factory, —  all  things, 
in  short,  into  which  men  have,  in  these  latter  times, 
thrown  their  best  mind-power  or  will-power, —  seem  to 
be  making  up  their  record,  and,  as  the  shadows  deepen 
with  the  setting  sun  of  the  century,  to  be  preparing  to 
give  an  account  of  their  stewardship.  For  no  possible 
reason  can  the  Christian  Ministry  refuse  to  do  likewise. 
If  it  be  foremost  in  dignity  and  power  as  the  representa- 
tive of  an  eternal  kingdom,  then,  by  so  much  the  more 
as  it  transcends  all  other  offices  ordained  for  the  well- 
being  of  man,  is  it  bound,  at  this  time,  to  account  for 
the  talents  committed  to  it. 

Neither  the  purpose  nor  the  scope  of  these  thoughts 
demands  any  formal  statement  of  the  doctrine  of  the 
Ministry.  It  is  enough,  perhaps,  to  say  that  what  the 
Church  has  taught  in  all  ages  respecting  its  origin,  con- 
stitution, and  transmission,  is  taken  for  granted.  And 
yet  there  ai-e  Ministries  which  in  the  light  of  this  teach- 
ing we  must  hold  to  be  defective,  whose  existence  and 
work  it  would  be  idle  to  ignore  in  such  a  discussion  as 
is  now  proposed.     While,  therefore,  as   a   rule,  when 


The   Christian  Ministry  at  the  Bar  of  Criticism.       3 

speaking  of  the  Ministry,  I  shall  refer  to  what  we  under- 
stand by  the  Catholic  and  Apostolic  Ministry,  I  shall 
not  hesitate,  in  all  cases  that  may  require  it,  to  include 
the  fruits  of  other  Ministries  organized  upon  a  diiferent 
basis. 

The  characteristics  of  our  time,  whether  religious  or 
irreligious,  repeat  themselves  in  the  current  views  of  the 
Christian  Priesthood.  As  men  think  of  religion  gener- 
ally, so  they  think  of  the  official  class  commissioned  to 
represent  it.  The  Priesthood  belongs  to  a  system  of 
gifts,  powers,  ordinances,  and  institutions,  organically 
bound  together;  and  the  conception  which  determines 
the  place  and  value  of  the  whole  determines  the  place 
and  value  of  every  part.  In  forming  this  conception  of 
the  whole,  or  of  any  part,  many  minds  are  swayed  by 
habits  of  thought,  both  speculative  and  practical,  that 
sweep  widely  beyond  the  subject  in  hand,  and  deal  vath. 
interests  that  have  no  immediate  connection  with  it. 
Some  are  influenced  by  that  elastic  and  often  intangi- 
ble thing,  —  the  spirit  of  the  age  ;  some,  by  opinions  or 
prepossessions  derived  from  certain  schools  of  science 
and  literature,  or  from  theories  of  social  and  political  de- 
velopment, or  from  historical  studies ;  while  still  others, 
consciously  or  unconsciously,  take  their  bias  from  some 
pronounced  trend  in  theology,  or  some  dominant  phase 
of  Christian  life  and  organization.  However  we  may 
account  for  the  many  and  divergent  estimates  of  the 
Christian  Ministry  in  these  closing  years  of  the  century, 
it  is  a  fact  that  they  exist ;  nay,  more,  that  they  assert 
themselves  boldly  in  the  popular  as  well  as  the  critical 
judgment  of  our  time.     While  some  of  them  may  sad- 


2       The  Christian  Ministry  at  the  Bar  of  Criticism. 

God-given  but  man-kept  agency;  what  is  said  of  it  by 
others  ;  what  it  has  to  say  of  and  for  itself. 

This  is  not  only  the  last,  but,  as  commonly  believed, 
it  is  the  most  remarkable,  of  all  the  centuries.  Moved 
by  this  belief,  the  minds  of  men  in  all  the  higher  walks 
of  thought  are  now  turning  aside  from  special  studies, 
to  look  at  the  mould  and  drift  of  the  age  taken  as  a 
whole.  The  sciences  of  mind  and  matter,  of  society 
and  civil  government,  of  law  and  medicine,  the  arts  of 
utility  and  the  arts  of  imagination,  the  skilled  indus- 
tries of  the  soil,  the  sea,  and  the  factory,  —  all  things, 
in  short,  into  which  men  have,  in  these  latter  times, 
thrown  their  best  mind-power  or  will-power, —  seem  to 
be  making  up  their  record,  and,  as  the  shadows  deepen 
with  the  setting  sun  of  the  century,  to  be  preparing  to 
give  an  account  of  their  stewardship.  For  no  possible 
reason  can  the  Christian  Ministry  refuse  to  do  likewise. 
If  it  be  foremost  in  dignity  and  power  as  the  representa- 
tive of  an  eternal  kingdom,  then,  by  so  much  the  more 
as  it  transcends  all  other  offices  ordained  for  the  well- 
being  of  man,  is  it  bound,  at  this  time,  to  account  for 
the  talents  committed  to  it. 

Neither  the  purpose  nor  the  scope  of  these  thoughts 
demands  any  formal  statement  of  the  doctrine  of  the 
Ministry.  It  is  enough,  perhaps,  to  say  that  what  the 
Church  has  taught  in  all  ages  respecting  its  origin,  con- 
stitution, and  transmission,  is  taken  for  granted.  And 
yet  there  are  Ministries  which  in  the  light  of  this  teach- 
ing we  must  hold  to  be  defective,  whose  existence  and 
work  it  would  be  idle  to  ignore  in  such  a  discussion  as 
is  now  proposed.     While,  therefore,  as   a   rule,  when 


The  Christian  Ministry  at  the  Bar  of  Criticism.       3 

speaking  of  the  Ministry,  I  shall  refer  to  what  we  under- 
stand by  the  Catholic  and  Apostolic  Ministry,  I  shall 
not  hesitate,  in  all  cases  that  may  require  it,  to  include 
the  fruits  of  other  Ministries  organized  upon  a  different 
basis. 

The  characteristics  of  our  time,  whether  religious  or 
irreligious,  repeat  themselves  in  the  current  views  of  the 
Christian  Priesthood.  As  men  think  of  religion  gener- 
ally, so  they  think  of  the  oificial  class  commissioned  to 
represent  it.  The  Priesthood  belongs  to  a  system  of 
gifts,  powers,  ordinances,  and  institutions,  organically 
bound  together;  and  the  conception  which  determines 
the  place  and  value  of  the  whole  determines  the  place 
and  value  of  every  part.  In  forming  this  conception  of 
the  whole,  or  of  any  part,  many  minds  are  swayed  by 
habits  of  thought,  both  speculative  and  practical,  that 
sweep  widely  beyond  the  subject  in  hand,  and  deal  with 
interests  that  have  no  immediate  connection  with  it. 
Some  are  influenced  by  that  elastic  and  often  intangi- 
ble thing,  —  the  spirit  of  the  age  ;  some,  by  opinions  or 
prepossessions  derived  from  certain  schools  of  science 
and  literature,  or  from  theories  of  social  and  political  de- 
velopment, or  from  historical  studies ;  while  still  others, 
consciously  or  unconsciously,  take  their  bias  from  some 
pronounced  trend  in  theology,  or  some  dominant  phase 
of  Christian  life  and  organization.  However  we  may 
account  for  the  many  and  divergent  estimates  of  the 
Christian  Ministry  in  these  closing  years  of  the  century, 
it  is  a  fact  that  they  exist ;  nay,  more,  that  they  assert 
themselves  boldly  in  the  popular  as  well  as  the  critical 
judgment  of  our  time.     While  some  of  them  may  sad- 


4       The  Christian  Ministry  at  the  Bar  of  Criticism. 

den,  none  of  them  ought  to  surprise  us ;  for  there  is  not 
one  of  them  whose  way  has  not  been  prepared  by  some 
definite  drift  of  modern  thought.  While  there  is  scarcely 
an  aspect  of  the  unbelief  or  liberalism  or  genuine  faith 
of  the  day,  that  has  not  repeated  itself  in  one  or  more 
of  these,  they  are  reducible,  without  loss  of  any  essen- 
tial feature,  to  the  following. 

1.  We  have  the  view  of  the  Ministry  taken  as  mat- 
ter of  course  by  the  agnostic,  who  neither  affirms  nor 
denies  the  being  of  God,  relegating  with  philosophical 
complacency  the  whole  question  to  the  region  of  the 
unknown  and  the  unknowable ;  by  the  secularist,  who, 
sure  of  only  this  world,  deems  it  a  waste  of  thought  and 
care  to  divide  his  attention  between  that  and  some  other 
only  possible  world,  dismissing  without  reserve  the  spirit- 
ual life,  with  its  inheritance  of  immortality,  to  the  limbo 
of  dreams  and  fictions ;  by  the  extreme  liberal,  who, 
though  flaunting  the  badge  of  a  spiritual  philosophy, 
and  talking  in  a  large  way  about  God  and  the  human 
soul,  about  duty  and  the  grandeur  of  an  endless  moral 
development,  about  the  hid  treasures  and  wonderful 
possibilities  of  the  great  ethnic  religions,  and  about 
all  affiliated  themes,  yet,  so  far  as  Christianity  or  the 
Church  is  concerned,  can  give  us  no  better  proof  of  his 
solicitude  for  our  welfare  than  by  warning  us  of  the 
approaching  collapse  of  faith,  of  the  increasing  shallow- 
ness of  the  crust  of  modern  piety,  of  the  loosening  hold 
of  the  Cross  on  all  forms  of  intellectual  and  ethical 
development,  and  of  the  consuming  flame  driven  by 
advancing  science  over  the  stubble  field  of  worn-out 
creeds  and  sapless  traditions.     By  all  these,  the  Chris- 


The  Christian  Ministry  at  the  Bar  of  Criticism.       5 

tian  Ministry  is  declared  to  be  a  dying  function,  retaining 
the  show  without  the  reality  of  life,  and  kept  afloat  only 
by  habits  of  thought  and  usages  of  society  gradually 
dwindling  away  before  the  advancing  dawn,  of  a  new 
era  of  light  and  progress. 

2.  Next  there  is  the  view  of  the  Ministry  taken  by 
not  a  few  Christian  people.  For  one  reason  or  another, 
they  have  come  to  listen  to  disparaging  allusions  to  the 
Sacred  Office  as  though  they  were  in  good  part  well- 
grounded.  It  has  become  the  fashion  to  speak  of  it 
slightingly,  and  as  though  it  has  had  its  day ;  and  sadly 
enough  it  has  equally  grown  to  be  the  fashion,  among 
too  many,  to  be  silent  or  timidly  apologetic,  as  though, 
if  they  attempted  any  defence,  it  would  be  reluctant  and 
half-hearted.  I  am  not  concerned  just  now  with  the 
causes  of  this  state  of  mind.  Speaking  generally,  it  has 
been  one  effect  of  the  recent  movements  in  religious 
thought,  to  make  many  within  the  Church  timid  and  dis- 
trustful in  regard  to  the  future  of  the  faith  and  order  in 
which  they  have  been  trained.  To  them,  the  outlook  is 
clouded;  old  landmarks  are  passing  away ;  the  very  foun- 
dations seem  to  be  threatened;  strange  doctrines,  claiming 
to  be  the  latest  voice  of  Christianity,  are  in  the  air ;  the 
facts  of  the  Gospel  are  made  to  shake  hands  with  modern 
conceits  and  speculations,  in  a  way  that  forces  a  suspicion 
as  to  the  integrity  of  the  facts  themselves;  while  the 
stability  of  the  best-known  Christian  dogmas  and  insti- 
tutions is  disturbed  by  the  passion  for  new  departures 
in  religious  teaching  and  organization.  Now,  to  minds 
mainly  occupied  with  these  aspects  of  the  religion  of 
the  time,  the  Ministry  very  naturally  appears  to  be  in  a 


6        The  Christian  Ministry  at  the  Bar  of  Criticism. 

decline.  They  see  no  help  for  it,  and  strive  not  to  find 
any.  There  is  a  great  deal  of  spiritual  wreckage  afloat, 
and  this  is  only  a  part  of  it. 

3.  Finally,  there  is  the  estimate  of  the  Ministry 
prevalent,  I  would  fain  believe,  among  the  great  body 
of  the  faithful.  With  them  I  affirm  that  the  essential 
elements  of  Christianity  were  never  pushed  more  boldly 
to  the  front  of  human  thought  and  human  life  than  they 
are  to-day ;  that  the  religious  impulse  of  the  race  was 
never  so  deep  and  strong  as  now ;  that  the  faith  once 
delivered  never  had  a  more  vital  hold  on  the  reason  and 
conscience  of  mankind,  or  was  more  likely  to  lift  them 
to  higher  orbits  of  truth  and  power,  than  at  this  moment. 
All  this  may  be  claimed  without  denying  much  that 
seems  to  make  against  it.  Some  are  terrified  by  the 
apparently  sweeping  and  radical  character  of  the  changes 
going  on  in  the  beliefs  of  the  time.  But  these  are  not 
what  they  seem.  The  material  of  all  doctrines  in  any 
way  fundamental  to  our  religion  is  drawn  from  the  facts 
of  revelation  and  the  facts  of  our  own  consciousness. 
There  is  and  can  be  no  change  in  these.  But  when  we 
consider  the  forms  into  which  these  facts  are  to  be  cast, 
the  verbal  shapes  they  are  to  take,  there  is  scarcely  any 
limit  to  the  possibilities  of  change.  The  mind,  guided 
by  the  Spirit  of  all  truth,  will  go  on  stating  and  re- 
stating them  generation  after  generation ;  and  will  be 
sure  to  exercise  its  liberty,  as  it  ought  to  do,  to  the  full 
extent  needed  to  make  its  statement  of  eternal  wisdom 
as  large  as  the  sum  of  knowledge  and  the  actual  experi- 
ence of  the  human  soul  at  any  given  time.  This  process 
may  often  disturb,  but  need  not  alarm,  the  people  of 


The  Christian  Ministry  at  the  Bar  of  Criticism.     7 

God.  The  very  fact  that  it  is  now  so  widely  operative, 
thrusting  upon  us  so  many  signs  of  change,  and  here 
and  there  giving  off  ugly  portents  of  agitation  and  con- 
vulsion, is  at  bottom  the  strongest  possible  proof  of  the 
unwasting  vitality  of  the  facts  with  which  it  deals.  It 
is  because  Christianity  is  made  up  of  these  facts  of 
revelation  and  consciousness,  that  it  is  ordained  to  be 
the  crown  of  the  moral  order  of  the  world.  As  such, 
neither  itself  as  a  whole,  nor  any  thing  instituted  by  its 
Author  to  represent  it  unto  men,  —  as  Priesthood,  or 
Sacraments,  or  Worship,  or  the  mystical  Body  itself, — 
can  permanently  wither  or  really  perish.  We  know, 
then,  as  we  know  Him  in  whom  we  have  believed,  even 
the  Word  made  flesh  and  dwelling  among  us,  that  the 
priesthood  eternally  His  as  the  one  Mediator,  and  com- 
mitted by  Him  unto  men  called  by  the  Holy  Ghost  and 
formally  set  apart  by  the  Church, — though  still  as  thus 
exercised  only  a  more  special  and  authoritative  form  of 
the  one  royal  priesthood  diffused  among  all  the  members 
of  His  Body,— is  an  inherent,  and  imperishable  part  of 
the  supernatural  instrumentality  by  which  God,  in  the 
order  of  grace,  seeks  to  reconcile  mankind  unto  Himself. 
Such  is  the  essentially  Christian  conception  of  the  Priest- 
hood; and  thus  regarded,  we  may  trace  it,  as  we  now 
purpose  to  do,  through  its  later  historic  fluctuations, 
marking  its  losses  and  perversions  occasioned  by  the 
progress  of  events  or  by  the  faults  of  its  administrators, 
as  well  as  its  victories  and  gains  achieved  in  times  when 
most  intensely  conscious  of  the  grandeur  of  its  mission 
and  of  the  indwelling  energy  of  the  Holy  Ghost. 
Standing  on  this  vantage-ground,  we  may  listen  with 


8        The  Christian  Ministry  at  the  Bar  of  Criticism. 

sorrow  to  all  that  modern  criticism  can  tell  us  of  its 
negligences  and  aberrations,  its  shallownesses  and  puer- 
ilities, its  failures  and  forfeitures ;  but  also  in  the  full 
assurance  of  faith  in  its  inherent  power  of  recuperation 
and  renewal. 

Nothing  relating  to  the  Chi'istian  Religion  is  more 
characteristic  of  these  closing  years  of  the  century  than 
the  allegation,  pressed  every  day  with  increasing  empha- 
sis, that  the  influence  of  the  Christian  Priesthood  on  the 
thought  and  life  of  the  time  has  not  only  changed  in  its 
form  and  direction,  but  that  it  has  declined  in  bulk  and 
force.  Whatever  the  Clergy  themselves  may  think  of 
the  question,  it  is  clear  that  the  world  at  large  has  not 
been  backward  in  making  up  or  in  announcing  its  ver- 
dict. Strangely  enough,  the  minds  that  seem  to  be  most 
confident  of  the  moribund  drift  of  the  Priesthood  are 
the  very  ones  that,  as  a  rule,  are  most  powerfully  drawn 
to  it  as  a  subject  of  inquiry  and  criticism.  Somehow 
they  are  constantly  endeavoring  to  prove  what  they 
wonder  that  anybody  should  doubt.  As  they  read  the 
logic  of  events,  it  ought  to  be  visibly  wasting  away ;  and 
yet  the  best  intelligence  of  the  day  treats  it  as  though 
it  had  a  long  lease  of  life.  Certainly  the  free  thought 
of  the  time  handles  it  with  scant  courtesy,  and  waves  it 
one  side  as  a  thing  whose  destiny  was  long  since  suffi- 
ciently settled.  But  free  thought,  as  it  is  called,  is  not 
the  highest  or  the  most  abiding  thought.  It  is  only 
from  the  thought  that  is  highest  and  most  abiding,  that 
the  Christian  Ministry  can  expect  a  judgment  that  will 
include  all  the  facts.  Sure  we  are  that  the  origin  and 
historic  descent  of  this  Ministry,  its  intimate   relation 


The  Christian  Ministry  at  the  Bar  of  Criticism.      9 

with  most  of  the  leading  moral  forces  of  life,  its  place 
and  office  in  the  world  of  intellect,  its  permanent  guard- 
ianship and  habitual  employment  of  the  noblest  ideas 
that  sway  the  human  mind,  its  vast  and  continuous  work 
in  moulding  individual  character,  its  admitted  control 
over  many  of  the  most  powerful  and  yet  intangible 
influences  that  affect  society,  —  sure  we  are  that  these, 
aside  from  its  directly  religious  ministrations  and  its 
official  stewardship  of  the  Divine  mysteries,  will  always 
recommend  it  to  truth-loving  and  earnest  minds,  though 
they  be  without  the  pale  of  formal  Christian  belief,  as 
a  subject  of  supreme  importance,  if  not  of  absorbing 
interest. 

We  speak  sometimes  of  the  power,  and  sometimes 
of  the  influence,  of  the  Ministry,  as  though  they  were 
synonymous ;  whereas  they  relate  to  different  aspects  of 
it,  and  suggest  widely  divergent  lines  of  inquiry.  Power 
denotes  what  inheres  in  the  very  nature  and  constitu- 
tion of  the  Holy  Office ;  what  is  conveyed  by  the  Holy 
Ghost  in  ordination,  —  that  grace  of  orders  which  is 
absolutely  God's  own  gift.  Influence  denotes  the  sway 
which  the  power  thus  conferred  gains  over  those  on 
whom  it  was  intended  to  operate.  It  represents  practi- 
cal direction  and  actual  control.  It  brings  up  the  whole 
question  of  results  arising  from  the  exercise  of  this 
Divine  agency.  Power  stands  for  the  original  authority 
of  the  sender,  and  the  derived  authority  embodied 
in  the  commission  of  the  sent.  It  is  an  impersonal 
Divine  virtue,  committed  by  God's  appointment,  and  for 
a  defined  purpose,  to  human  instruments,  chosen  and 
called  by  Himself.     Influence,  on  the  other  hand,  meas- 


10     The  Christian  Ministry  at  the  Bar  of  Criticism. 

ures  the  extent  to  which  this  force  accomphshes  its 
end;  how  far  as  salt  it  purifies,  how  far  as  light  it 
illumines,  how  far  as  leaven  it  pervades  the  lump  of 
humanity. 

As  the  inquiry  now  proposed  relates  solely  to  the 
influence  of  the  Ministry,  the  distinction  just  drawn 
will  take  us  at  once  into  the  province  of  history  and 
experience.  In  support  of  the  assertion  that  the  influ- 
ence of  the  Ministry  is  declining,  substantially  the  follow- 
ing statements  meet  us  at  every  turn.  We  are  told  that 
institutions  and  offices  resting  on  authority  have  been 
damaged  in  their  pretensions  ;  that  the  spirit  of  the  age 
is  bent  on  levelling  the  old  eminences  of  power  and 
privilege,  and  on  bringing  all  hereditary  rights  and  suc- 
cessional  claims  down  to  a  point  where  the  popular  voice 
can  deal  with  them ;  that  there  is  a  growing  disposition 
among  the  masses  in  all  countries  of  any  mental  activity 
to  challenge  any  law,  ordinance,  or  function  in  Church 
or  State,  that  does  not  approve  its  reasonableness  and 
expediency  at  the  bar  of  popular  opinion.  We  are  told 
that  the  time  has  come,  whether  for  good  or  evil,  when 
mankind  in  most  civilized  lands  think  and  know  too 
much  to  endure  any  longer  priestly  dictation  in  matters 
of  the  family  or  of  society,  or  priestly  teaching  as  a 
reliable  expression  of  eternal  truth.  There  was  a  time 
when  the  Priest's  position  and  influence  were  accepted 
as  things  of  course ;  when  no  one  dreamed  of  intruding 
into  functions  universally  conceded  to  him  and  touching 
in  some  way  all  sides  of  life.  But  all  that  is  radically 
changed.  Now  the  Priest's  authority  amounts  to  no 
more  than  the  moral  power  won  by  force  of  character, 


The  Christian  Ministry  at  the  Bar  of  Criticism.     11 

or  the  intellectual  power  created  by  superior  discipline 
and  attainments.  With  most  people  his  teachings  and 
opinions  go  for  what  they  are  worth  as  products  of 
individual  judgment.  Favors,  immunities,  special  con- 
fidences and  attachments,  no  longer,  save  in  rare  excep- 
tions, gather  around  him  as  the  spontaneous  fruit  of  a 
friendly  social  order.  Still  further,  we  are  told,  that,  in 
the  current  opinion  of  the  day,  the  Priesthood  has,  as  a 
whole,  fallen  off  in  elevation  of  moral  and  spiritual  tone, 
and,  consequently,  in  those  rarer  and  nobler  qualities  of 
character  which  need  only  the  opportunity  to  crystallize 
into  brave  leaders  and  heroic  witnesses,  to  whom  a  for- 
lorn hope  or  a  perilous  crisis  in  a  great  cause  is  as  an 
inspiration  from  God,  and  by  whom  all  things,  verily 
and  indeed,  are  counted  loss  for  Christ.  Such,  in  gen- 
eral, is  the  tone  of  sentiment  now  widely  prevalent  in 
regard  to  the  present  status,  work,  and  influence  of  the 
Clergy.  I  have  stated  it  just  here  as  a  fitting  introduc- 
tion to  the  more  formal  and  detailed  consideration,  now 
to  be  undertaken,  of  positive  losses  or  serious  dilutions 
and  abrasions  of  clerical  influence,  whether  caused  by 
the  progress  of  events,  working  inevitable  changes  in 
the  whole  fabric  of  modem  life,  or  by  the  faults,  actually 
verified  or  simply  alleged,  of  the  Clergy  themselves. 

As  history  tells  us,  the  Clergy  once,  and  for  a  long 
period,  wielded  a  very  wide-spread  and  powerful  influ- 
ence as  the  exclusively  learned  class.  As  such,  they 
were  pressed  in  many  ways  into  the  service  of  the  state, 
and  of  general  society.  With  the  first  beginnings  of 
modern  civilization,  they  emerged  into  prominence  as 
recognized  leaders  in  fashioning  the  chaotic  and  recon- 


12     The  Christian  Ministry  at  the  Bar  of  Criticism. 

ciling  the  conflicting  elements  of  social  and  political 
life.  It  was  not  of  their  seeking,  that  so  much  was 
devolved  upon  them  in  addition  to  their  proper  spiiitual 
charge.  It  was  a  necessity  of  the  times,  that  they  who 
had  the  faculties  needed  for  so  great  a  task  should 
assume  the  guidance  of  rude  and  only  partially  amal- 
gamated races  in  their  exodus  from  barbarism.  They 
were  the  founders  of  the  schools  in  which  modern 
Europe  learned  many  of  its  earliest  lessons.  They 
were  law-makers  and  magistrates,  because  law-making 
and  magistracy  would  have  fared  badly  without  them. 
They  were  masons,  carpenters,  workers  in  metals,  tillers 
of  the  soil,  road-makers,  conquerors  of  wildernesses, 
scriveners,  composers  and  transcribers  of  books,  —  men, 
in  short,  of  all  work  demanding  intellectual  ability, 
patient  energy,  and  a  disciplined  will.  All  things  con- 
sidered, it  is  wonderful  that  such  variety  and  pressure 
of  secular  work,  with  the  temptations  to  ambition  and 
self-aggrandizement  which  it  created,  should  not  have 
more  completely  overlaid  and  demoralized  their  special 
vocation  as  priests  of  God  and  servants  of  the  Church. 
The  hold  thus  acquii'ed  on  all  leading  interests  of  the 
world  was  not  easily  relaxed.  Custom  retained  them 
for  centuries  in  well-nigh  the  same  general  relation  to 
society  and  the  state  in  which  necessity  originally  placed 
them.  But  at  last,  as  the  result  of  the  slow  but  steady 
operation  of  causes  set  in  motion  by  the  versatile  genius 
of  modern  civilization,  the  time  came  when  the  Clergy 
fell  back  as  naturally  into  their  own  divinely  appointed 
sphere  of  work,  as,  ages  before,  they  had  accepted  re- 
sponsible secular  trusts,  and  exercised  important  secular 


The  Christian  Ministry  at  the  Bar  of  Criticism.     13 

functions.  The  change  has  been  one  of  the  most 
remarkable  in  history.  It  has  been  going  on  visibly 
since  the  dawn  of  the  seventeenth  century.  Our  day  has 
completed  it.  And  as  the  total  result,  in  the  world's 
judgment,  the  Clergy  have  lost  seriously  in  prestige  and 
influence.  They  are  now  only  one  of  many  learned 
orders  and  professions.  Civil  government,  whether  in 
monarchies  or  republics,  no  longer  needs  their  extra 
help ;  society  has  learned  how  to  care  for  itself;  and 
the  great  modern  law  of  the  subdivision  of  labor  has 
relegated  them  to  what  many  regard  as  a  condition  of 
hopeless  mediocrity  among  callings  destined  to  leave  it 
far  behind  in  the  race  for  publicity  and  influence. 

Again,  at  a  period  not  far  distant  in  the  past,  the 
Clergy  were  the  accepted  guides  and  masters  in  all  lib- 
eral and  popular  education.  When  they  ceased  to  act 
as  judges,  legislators,  cabinet-ministers,  and  to  direct 
mankind  in  practical  arts  and  skilled  industries,  they 
did  not  cease  to  be  the  accredited  instructors  of  the 
human  mind  and  the  foremost  builders  of  individual  and 
national  character.  Themselves  men  of  thought  and 
culture,  or,  at  least,  impelled  to  become  such  by  the 
instincts  of  their  calling,  they  habitually  identified  them- 
selves with  all  existing  methods  for  promoting  intellect- 
ual interests ;  and  when  such  methods  were  wanting 
they  considered  it  their  duty  to  supply  them.  They 
founded  schools  and  seminaries  and  universities,  wherever 
they  could  secure  the  favor  of  princes  and  the  patronage 
of  the  rich.  They  gathered  libraries,  endowed  fellow- 
ships, and  built  quiet  retreats  for  men  of  scholarly  tastes. 
They  assigned  to  theology  the  first   place  among  the 


14     The  Christian  Ministry  at  the  Bar  of  Criticism. 

subjects  of  human  thought ;  but  they  believed  that 
no  science,  no  department  of  learning,  could  extend  its 
borders  without  doing  something  to  illustrate  afresh  the 
wisdom  and  glory  of  God  as  well  in  redemption  as  in 
creation.  In  the  times  to  which  I  refer,  the  Clergy 
made  mistakes,  wandered  often  far  away  into  fields  of 
profitless  speculation  and  controversy,  were  not  seldom 
narrow  in  their  estimates  of  the  services  of  great  think- 
ers and  discoverers ;  and  yet  not  by  any  means  to  the 
extent  asserted  by  minds  of  nineteenth-century  breadth. 
"Whatever  even  may  be  said  of  them  in  these  respects, 
it  is  certain  that  beyond  any  other  class  they  were  the 
sponsors  and  tutors  of  the  generations  which  prepared 
the  way  for  whatever  is  most  distinctive  and  valuable 
in  the  attainments  of  recent  times. 

In  this  country,  especially,  the  Clergy  have  a  noble 
record  in  the  history  of  education.  There  was  not  a 
college,  and  scarcely  a  school,  founded  in  colonial  times, 
or,  indeed,  up  to  within  forty  years  ago,  that  was  not 
indebted  for  its  existence  to  the  sympathetic  interest 
and  active  co-operation  of  the  Clergy.  In  those  early 
days  they  everywhere  planted  the  school  beside  the 
church,  and  hailed  the  fullest  and  freest  intelligence  as 
the  handmaid  of  religion,  and  the  buttress  of  a  free 
state.  It  seemed  then  only  the  natural  and  necessary 
thing,  to  give  them  the  controlling  voice  in  all  school 
boards  and  academic  faculties. 

In  Europe,  until  twenty-five  years  ago,  it  is  not  too 
much  to  say  that  nine-tenths  of  the  primary,  and  by 
far  the  larger  share  of  the  higher  training,  intended  for 
the  learned  and  professional  classes,  were   directly  or 


The  Christian  Ministry  at  the  Bar  of  Criticism.     15 

indirectly  controlled  by  clerical  influence.  Even  the 
free-thinking  portions  of  Germany  furnished  no  excep- 
tion, save  in  a  few  of  its  gymnasia  and  universities. 

But  now,  look  where  we  will,  at  home  or  abroad,  and 
we  are  confronted  with  the  evidences  of  a  radical  change. 
The  movement  for  secular,  as  against  all  avowedly 
Christian  education,  has,  in  this  country,  been  entu*ely 
successful.  The  Clergy  of  all  names  have  been  gradu- 
ally retu-ed  from  the  field  in  which  they  were  once  the 
acknowledged  leaders ;  and  any  attempt  on  their  part 
to  meddle  with,  far  more  to  manage,  our  public  schools, 
or  even  seminaries  and  colleges  in  any  degree  depend- 
ent on  state  aid,  would  be  greeted  in  most,  perhaps  all, 
of  our  communities,  not  merely  with  distrust  and  cen- 
sure, but  with  determined  opposition.  The  battle  has 
been  fought,  and,  as  everybody  knows,  won  by  the 
secular  power.  From  being  the  rule  that  the  Clergy 
should  predominate  in  all  school-committees  and  college 
trusteeships,  it  is  now  not  only  the  exception,  but  it  is 
growing  more  and  more  rare,  to  find  their  names  in 
any  such  connection  at  all.  There  are  still  schools  and 
colleges  where  they  govern,  but  they  do  so  as  the  imme- 
diate representatives  of  the  religious  bodies  to  which 
these  institutions  belong.  Nowhere  among  us  in  the 
general  educational  work  of  our  land  which  represents 
the  tone  or  is  obedient  to  the  will  of  the  people,  does 
any  distinctively  clerical  influence  linger,  except  by 
courtesy  or  by  forbearance  toward  its  admitted  weakness*. 
In  Europe,  in  all  schools  partially  or  wholly  under  state 
control,  the  same  tendency  is  intensely  aggressive.  In 
England,  clerical  influence  in  every  grade  and  depart- 


16     The  Christian  Ministry  at  the  Bar  of  Criticism. 

ment  of  education  is  on  the  decline.  The  Established 
Church  is  putting  forth  a  mighty  effort  to  retain  her 
influence  over  the  nurture  and  training  of  her  children. 
The  contest  has  its  fluctuations,  and  now  and  then  in 
some  parts  of  the  land  she  seems  to  score  a  victory ; 
but,  taken  as  a  whole,  the  national  mind  seems  to  be 
steadily  sagging  toward  the  temper  and  policy  of  avowed 
secularism.  It  is  a  fact  of  special  significance  in  this 
connection,  that  in  the  universities  of  Oxford  and  Cam- 
bridge, with  their  total  of  more  than  forty  separate 
colleges,  the  old  statute  declaring  Clergymen  as  alone 
eligible  to  the  ofiice  of  masters  or  heads  of  colleges 
has  been  repealed.  This,  with  other  equally  marked 
changes  in  the  religious  regimen  of  these  centres  of 
learning,  attests  better,  perhaps,  than  any  thing  else, 
the  present  attitude  of  the  English  people.  Certain  it 
is,  that  the  drift  of  legislation  and  of  public  thought, 
as  expressed  in  the  current  discussions  of  the  hour,  is 
adverse  —  strongly,  profoundly  so  —  to  the  Clergy  as 
educators  of  the  nation.  In  Belgium,  where  the  Clergy 
held  undisputed  sway  over  the  training  of  the  people, 
they  have  lost  their  hold  on  the  gymnasia  and  mid- 
dle schools ;  and  since  the  dogma  of  infallibility  was 
decreed,  they  maintain  a  precarious  position  in  the 
primary  schools.  In  France,  the  controversy  on  this 
great  question  has,  within  twenty  years,  traversed  all  its 
aspects  and  bearings.  At  times  it  has  shown  so  much 
heat  and  bitterness  as  to  attract  the  attention  of  the 
civilized  world.  Nowhere  else  have  the  elements  in 
this  contest  been  set  against  each  other  in  such  uncom- 
promising  and   turbulent   antagonism.     The   result   is 


The  Christian  Ministry  at  the  Bar  of  Criticism.     17 

known  to  all :  the  State  is  triumphant ;  the  Clergy,  after 
fighting  long  and  bravely  for  so  much  as  a  modus  vivendi 
on  the  question,  find  themselves  driven  to  the  wall.  So 
late  as  the  close  of  Napoleon  Third's  reign,  they  held 
with  a  firm  hand  the  mastery  over  popular  education ; 
but  within  five  years  after  the  inauguration  of  the 
Eepublic,  in  a  council  of  thirty-nine  members,  the 
Clergy  were  reduced  to  five  representatives,  —  one  arch- 
bishop and  four  bishops  ;  and  to-day  they  are  absolutely 
excluded  from  the  national  deliberations  on  the  subject. 
In  Spain,  there  are  abundant  signs  of  a  growing  im- 
patience of  priestly  control  over  the  education  of  the 
people.  In  Italy,  the  course  of  things  has  been  so 
plainly  marked  by  new  laws  and  new  measures,  taken 
together  almost  subversive  of  the  old  system,  that  there 
can  be  little  doubt  as  to  the  early  and  complete  expul- 
sion of  the  Clergy  from  the  national  schools  and  uni- 
versities ;  while,  in  Austria,  the  radical  modification 
of  the  concordat  between  the  State  and  the  Church  has 
left  the  nation  free  to  deal  with  this  question,  as  it 
could  not  before.  In  Germany,  this  same  issue  has 
been  forced  to  the  front  by  the  old  struggle  between 
Church  and  State,  again  revived  by  the  new  and  extraor- 
dinary claims  of  ultramontanism.  The  ultimate  action 
on  this  question  is  generally  believed  to  be  a  foregone 
conclusion.  In  view  of  these  facts,  it  is  plain  that  the 
Clergy  have  lost  altogether  in  some  quarters,  and  are 
losing  in  others,  the  control,  once  overwhelmingly  theirs, 
over  the  education  of  the  masses.  This  loss  is  so  deep 
and  so  serious,  that  it  is  not  too  much  to  assert  that  it 
indicates  a  change  well-nigh  consummated  in  the  value 


18     The  Christian  Ministry  at  the  Bar  of  Criticism. 

and  force  of  the  Christian  Ministry  as  a  factor  in  the 
present  and  future  civilization  of  the  world. 

It  will  be  said,  perhaps,  that  the  Clergy  did  not  give 
to  the  nations  the  education  they  needed ;  but  it  remains 
to  be  seen  what  the  nations  will  do  for  themselves.  This 
solemn  trust  has  changed  hands,  and  with  what  results 
the  future  alone  can  show.  There  are  those  who  have 
studied  this  problem  down  to  its  roots,  and  have  brought 
to  the  task  a  profound  knowledge  of  the  human  mind, 
of  the  structure  and  wants  of  society,  and  of  the  law  of 
God.  They  do  not  claim  any  special  wisdom  as  inter- 
preters of  the  dark  things  of  our  day ;  nor  are  they  men 
who  have  lagged  behind  the  age,  and  whom  a  timid 
conservatism  has  converted  into  croakers  of  coming  evil. 
They  tell  us  that  a  re-action  from  this  now  irresistible 
drift  of  secularism  in  the  training  of  this  generation  is 
inevitable ;  that  disintegration  and  anarchy  will  befall 
the  nations  that  attempt  to  govern  after  they  have  ex- 
pelled from  their  own  organic  life  the  authorities  and 
ministries  which  God  has  ordained  to  represent  His 
spiritual  empire  evermore  in  the  affairs  of  the  race. 
They  assure  us  that  what  the  Christian  Priesthood  has 
lost  by  the  cleavages  of  the  modern  spirit  will  be  re- 
gained ;  but  not  until  the  dominant  peoples  of  the  earth 
shall  have  had  another  Red  Sea  baptism,  and  another 
desert  exile. 

But  there  is  another  product  of  modem  life  that  has 
been  pushed  into  competition  with  the  Clergy  as  a  teach- 
ing order.  To  the  versatile  vigor  and  enterprise  of  the 
press,  there  seems  to  be  no  assignable  limit.  More  than 
any  thing  else  among  us,  it  gathers  into  itself  the  fabled 


The  Christian  Ministry  at  the  Bar  of  Criticism.     19 

powers  of  the  gods  of  the  Greek  Pantheon.  In  its 
many-sided  faculties,  Jupiter  and  Apollo,  Mercury  and 
Minerva,  seem  to  be  reproduced  for  practical  service. 
Day  by  day,  without  pause  or  rest,  it  throws  off  its  mar- 
vellous photographs  of  the  thought  and  movement  of  the 
world.  It  has  built  up  an  empire  of  its  own,  with  pur- 
poses and  laws  peculiar  to  itself.  All  this,  and  much 
more  in  the  same  strain,  may  be  said  without  over-stating 
its  achievements ;  and  yet  it  is  not  easy  to  see  why  this 
agency  should  be  forced  into  comparison  with  the  Chris- 
tian Priesthood  as  the  chosen  vehicle  of  sacred  truth. 
The  press  and  the  pulpit  both  command  a  hearing,  but 
in  ver}'  different  ways  and  for  very  different  ends.  The 
Church  uses  the  press  as  a  means  to  an  end ;  as  a  subor- 
dinate agent  which  the  progress  of  discovery  and  inven- 
tion has  gradually  developed  into  the  common  servitor 
of  all  human  interests.  But  the  press  never  so  uses  the 
Church :  to  do  so,  were  to  reverse  the  order  of  things. 
With  matchless  skill  and  insight,  it  may  read  the  signs 
of  the  times,  and  detect  the  symptoms  and  issues  of  change 
in  society,  in  the  state,  in  the  Church,  and  in  the  world 
of  letters  ;  and  yet  it  is  itself  only  an  instrument  ordained 
to  serve  powers  and  institutions  sacred  and  secular,  which 
in  a  certain  commanding  sense  are  themselves  their  own 
ends  and  reasons  for  existence.  Accordingly,  after  the 
manner  of  every  leading  interest  of  mankind,  the  Church 
has,  from  the  date  of  its  introduction  into  modern  life, 
employed  the  press  in  countless  ways  and  with  immense 
advantage.  By  it,  as  well  as  by  her  living  Ministry,  her 
sound  has  gone  out  into  all  lands,  and  her  words  unto  the 
ends  of  the  world.     And  yet,  however  great  the  service 


20     The  Christian  Ministry  at  the  Bar  of  Criticism. 

it  has  rendered  to  Christianity ;  however  necessary,  as 
things  now  are,  it  may  be  to  all  present  plans  for  dis- 
seminating the  Gospel,  it  would  be  an  idle  boast  to  affirm 
that  it  had  either  supplanted  or  weakened  any  part  of 
the  original  equipment  of  the  Ministry  of  the  Word  and 
Sacraments.  In  the  nature  of  things,  no  such  result 
could  happen.  As  well  imagine  one  of  the  elements  of 
nature  superseded  by  some  new  mechanical  invention, 
or  the  occupation  of  the  moon  and  stars  gone  because 
we  have  an  abundance  of  gas.  Undoubtedly  the  press 
has  vastly  multiplied  the  readers,  as  compared  with  the 
hearers,  of  Divine  truth.  By  what  it  prints  and  circu- 
lates, it  can  virtually  set  up  the  pulpit  in  countless  spots 
all  over  the  world  where  no  regular  ministration  of  the 
living  preacher  could  be  had.  And  yet  it  must  be  re- 
membered, that  printed  truth  and  spoken  truth,  when 
addressed  to  the  will  and  conscience,  are  two  widely  dif- 
ferent powers ;  and  that  ordinarily  many  who  receive  the 
words  of  truth  and  life  conveyed  to  them  by  the  press 
will  sooner  or  later  find  their  way  to  the  care  and  bless- 
ing of  priestly  ministration,  and  so  will  enlarge  more 
and  more  the  area  of  priestly  influence. 

While  I  believe  this  to  be  a  fair  estimate  of  the  com- 
parative influence  of  the  press  and  the  pulpit  within  the 
sphere  of  religion,  I  know  that  a  considerable  portion 
of  the  general  public  regard  the  former  as  much  the 
more  eff"ective  agency,  and  as  destined  to  encroach  grad- 
ually upon  the  functions  of  the  latter  until  it  will  be 
accepted  by  the  masses  of  the  people  as  a  satisfactory 
substitute  for  it. 

Again,  the  Pastoral  Office  has  lost  a  powerful  auxiliary 


The  Christian  Ministry  at  the  Bar  of  Criticism.     21 

in  ceasing  to  be  the  chief  dispenser  of  charity.  Until 
recent  times  the  poor  derived  most  of  their  relief  through 
the  Clergy  as  the  ordinary  almoners  of  the  Church  and 
of  the  wealthy  classes.  It  will  be  remembered  with 
what  tenderness  of  sentiment  and  beauty  of  language 
George  Herbert  brings  out  the  meanings  and  uses  of 
the  relation  subsisting  between  the  Parson  and  the  poor 
of  his  flock.  He  had  a  care  for  their  daily  bread,  as 
well  for  the  body  as  for  the  soul.  The  alms  he  brought 
never  left  his  hand  unseasoned  with  prayers  and  godly 
counsels.  The  bestowment  of  them  was  made,  when 
required,  the  occasion  for  admonishing  the  ungrateful, 
restraining  the  unruly,  rebuking  the  vicious  and  disobe- 
dient, and  equally  for  instructing  the  ignorant  in  matters 
of  practical  duty  and  comforting  the  weary  and  heavy- 
laden.  This  side  of  the  pastorate  has  been  rendered 
almost  obsolete  by  the  altered  methods  of  relief.  What 
was  done  aforetime  by  the  alms  of  parishioners  dispensed 
through  the  Clergy,  is  done  now  by  taxes  levied  by  the 
civil  authority,  and  applied  by  agents  whom  it  appoints 
for  this  purpose.  The  State  has  taken  into  its  hands  the 
education  of  the  people ;  and,  as  part  of  the  same  general 
expansion  of  its  power  and  responsibility,  it  has  assumed 
the  care  of  its  poor.  In  both  ways  the  Church  has  been 
impoverished,  and  virtually  set  aside.  No  doubt,  most 
parish  Priests  still  consider  it  a  duty  to  do  something  in 
the  line  marked  out  for  George  Herbert's  ideal  Parson ; 
but  it  is  certain  that  this  function,  save  in  rare  excep- 
tions, has  ceased  to  be  what  it  once  was,  and  it  is  equally 
certain  that  the  disuse  of  it  has  entailed  upon  the  Clergy 
a  corresponding  loss  of  pastoral  influence. 


22     The  Christian  Ministry  at  the  Bar  of  Criticism. 

It  appears,  then,  from  these  facts,  that,  in  the  com- 
mon judgment,  the  Christian  Ministry  in  the  closing 
decades  of  this  century  has  lost  ground :  — 

(1)  By  sharing  with  other  callings,  and  with  the 
people  generally,  the  learning  and  technical  skill  of 
which  it  once  held  a  monopoly ; 

(2)  By  being  deprived  of  its  once  controlling  au- 
thority over  both  liberal  and  popular  education ; 

(3)  By  what  the  press  has  done  to  relieve  it  of  a 
portion  of  its  traditional  work,  if  not  in  some  degree, 
as  is  claimed,  provide  a  substitute  for  that  work ; 

(4)  By  the  substitution  of  poor-rates  or  taxes  for 
alms,  civil  functionaries  for  the  Clergy,  in  the  relief  of 
the  poor. 

Now,  if  this  conclusion  be  sound,  it  follows,  that,  rela- 
tively to  the  whole  mass  of  forces  operating  upon  the 
life  of  to-day,  the  influence  of  the  Ministry  has  not  only 
been  modified  in  its  form  and  direction,  but  has  fallen  oif 
in  its  dimensions.  But  may  it  not  be  that  this  influence, 
in  becoming  less  diffused,  and  less  mixed  with  secular 
interests,  the  care  of  which  has  passed  into  other  hands, 
is  destined  to  revert  more  nearly  to  its  original.  Apostolic 
simplicity,  and  so  to  grow  more  fervent  in  spirit,  more 
positive  in  its  teaching,  and  more  definite  and  concen- 
trated in  its  aims'?  And  so,  too,  may  it  not  come  true, 
that  in  the  end  its  gains  will  outrun  its  losses,  and  the 
great  spmtual  harvest  of  the  future  be  enriched  by  this 
merciless  handling,  in  the  present,  of  the  secular  prun- 
ing-knife  ? 

Thus  far  all  parties  to  this  discussion  are  substantially 
agreed.     I  come  now  to  aspects  of  the  subject  on  some 


The  Christian  Ministry  at  the  Bar  of  Criticism.     23 

of  which  there  is  little  and  on  others  a  very  radical  diver- 
sity of  opinion.  In  dealing  with  them  my  inquiries  will 
very  naturally  take  their  form  and  direction  very  largely 
from  the  adverse  rather  than  the  favorable  criticisms  of 
the  time.  The  Church  may  be  left  to  guard  and  main- 
tain its  own  conception  of  the  necessity  of  the  Priest- 
hood, and  of  the  value,  under  all  possible  fluctuations 
of  energy  and  faithfulness,  of  the  service  it  performs. 
What  my  theme  makes  it  chiefly  desirable  to  know  is 
the  degree  of  truth  and  force  to  be  conceded  to  the  gen- 
eral view  of  the  office  and  work  of  a  Priest  in  the  Church 
of  God,  taken  by  the  average  man  of  the  day ;  in  other 
words,  what  these  closing  years  of  the  most  remarkable 
of  centuries  have  to  say  about  it.  Now,  it  is  a  fact,  that 
the  current  thought  of  the  hour  is  turned  upon  what  are 
believed  to  be  the  weak,  rather  than  upon  what  the 
Clergy  themselves  believe  to  be  the  strong  points  in 
their  calling  and  work.  It  is  well,  therefore,  to  con- 
sider alleged  faults,  rather  than  claimed  virtues ;  and 
with  a  frank  and  fearless  eye  to  scan  the  picture  of  the 
Ministry  drawn  by  the  world  at  large,  with  aU  its  mix- ' 
ture  of  faith  and  doubt,  sympathy  and  hate.  St.  Paul, 
in  drawing  an  inspired  portrait  of  the  ideal  Minister  of 
Christ,  tells  him  to  "  give  no  offence  in  any  thing,  that 
the  ministry  be  not  blamed."  ^  Now,  the  average  Priest 
of  to-day  must  have  offended  beyond  all  calculation, 
judging  from  the  frequency  and  severity  of  the  blame 
cast  upon  him.  Let  us  see  for  what  he  is  blamed,  and 
then  ask  how  far  he  is  blamed  justly. 

1.  A    majority   of  the   Clergy   of  this   and   all   the 

1  2  Cor.  vi.  3. 


24     The  Christian  Ministry  at  the  Bar  of  Criticism. 

Clergy  of  the  Latin  Church,  and,  I  may  add,  all  the  doc- 
trinal! y  conservative  Ministers  of  the  more  stable  and 
conservative  Christian  Denominations,  are  blamed  for 
adhering  to  any  theology  on  which  this  last  quarter  of 
the  Nineteenth  Century  has  not  put  its  imprimatur.  The 
theology  that  will  not  wear  this  label  is  disparaged  be- 
cause of  what  it  is,  and  of  what  it  does,  or  rather  fails  to 
do,  for  those  who  accept  it.  What  is  said  of  it  is  said 
of  its  disciples  and  teachers,  and  substantially  the  follow- 
ing is  said  of  both.  The  theology  which  is  the  product 
of  the  clerical  mind,  the  old  theology  of  books  and  sys- 
tems and  seminary  lecture-rooms,  has  visibly  receded  in 
recent  years  from  its  once  proud  position  among  the 
sciences.  Its  prestige  is  broken ;  its  erudition  is  lean 
and  consumptive;  its  lea'ding  schools  and  faculties  are 
no  longer  the  centres  they  once  were  of  critical  learning, 
speculative  subtilty,  and  profound  study.  It  no  longer 
imposes  its  law  upon  inferior  or  collateral  departments 
of  knowledge,  and  what  it  does  or  leaves  undone  attracts 
constantly  decreasing  attention.  No  philosophy,  it  is 
charged,  can  live  peaceably  within  its  borders,  that  at- 
tempts any  real  advance  in  handling  the  great  problems 
of  being,  or  the  root  principles  of  scientific  morality. 
To  be  true  to  its  instincts  and  to  the  instincts  of  its 
guardians,  it  must  be  narrow,  timid,  unenterprising, 
tied  to  the  old  ruts  of  tradition,  and  averse  from  the 
well-ordered  highways  of  modern  thought.  And  then, 
it  is  added,  how  can  any  body  of  educated  men,  thus 
trammelled,  help  declining  in  vigor  and  freshness  and 
breadth,  and  consequently  in  ability  to  interest  and 
guide  others? 


The  Christian  Ministry  at  the  Bar  of  Criticism.     25 

Comment  upon  this  censure  will  be  reserved  until 
another  stage  of  the  discussion,  when  something  will  be 
said  touching  the  theological  and  ethical  labors  of  the 
Clergy. 

2.  The  Ministry  is  blamed  because  of  an  alleged 
decline  in  the  power  of  the  pulpit.  The  preaching  of 
the  day,  it  is  said,  does  not  hold  its  own  in  logic,  or 
unction,  or  eloquence.  It  has  lost  the  power  which 
compelled  the  hearing,  stirred  the  souls,  and  shaped  the 
opinions,  of  the  best  men  of  the  sixteenth  and  seven- 
teenth centuries.  But,  what  is  worse,  it  lacks  boldness 
and  fire  in  rebuking  sins  that  are  eating  out  the  heart 
of  this  generation,  —  sins  of  ambition  and  vanity,  sins 
of  selfish  and  profligate  riches,  sins  of  lust,  sins  which 
defile  our  business,  our  government,  our  churches,  our 
homes.  Now,  I  question  the  truth  of  such  statements. 
It  is  much  easier  to  make  them  than  it  is  to  prove  them. 
I  know  the  critics  and  the  secular  press  say  they  are 
true ;  but  they  would  not  be  up  to  their  vocation  if 
they  said  otherwise.  Our  modern  life  has  developed 
agencies  for  moving  public  opinion,  which,  whatever 
their  merit,  are  not  over-modest  in  rating  their  own 
power,  or  in  challenging  comparison  with  the  pulpit.  It 
may  be  that  our  preaching  is  as  strong  as  it  ever  was, 
and  yet  not  seem  so,  because  thrown  into  competition 
with  more  pretentious  methods  for  shaping  popular 
sentiment. 

But  why,  it  is  asked,  the  present  dearth  of  great 
preachers  ?  It  may  be  asked  also,  what  is  the  standard 
of  greatness  in  this  function  %  The  fact  is,  none  of  the 
Christian  ages  has  been  prolific  in  preachers  whom  after- 


26     The  Christian  Ministry  at  the  Bar  of  Criticism. 

times  declared  great  in  the  highest  sense  of  the  term. 
"  The  truly  great  preacher  is  one  of  the  rarest  products 
of  the  human  mind.  The  combination  of  gifts  requked 
to  produce  one  is  so  extraordinary,  that  that  generation 
is  fortunate  which  gives  even  one  to  the  Church  and  to 
mankind.  Neither  the  poet,  nor  the  civic  orator,  nor 
the  painter,  nor  the  sculptor  is  so  rare."  No  trait  of 
intellectual  or  moral  greatness  can  be  spared.  Even  the 
physical  man  must  be  the  fitting  organ  of  the  great  soul, 
while  the  spiritual  man  must  be  at  one  with  God  in 
Christ  Jesus.  If  you  rate  greatness  by  a  lower  standard, 
so  as  to  bring  under  it  preachers  really  eminent  in  learn- 
ing and  eloquence, — preachers  who  influence  multitudes 
of  wills  by  their  words  of  power,  and  yet  men  who  will 
be  little  heard  of  thirty  years  hence,  and  totally  forgotten 
in  two  generations  —  if  we  do  this,  then  I  am  bold  to 
affirm  that  no  age  has  had  a  stronger,  more  gifted,  and 
versatile  pulpit  than  the  present.  Nay,  I  am  bold  to 
say  that  the  Christian  religion  has  never  had  so  large 
and  well-equipped  a  body  of  men  to  propagate  it  at 
home  and  abroad  as  now.  And,  if  there  be  no  corre- 
sponding results  in  the  hearts  and  lives  of  men,  it  may 
be  due  to  causes  which  lie  beyond  the  power  of  any 
ministry  to  remove,  though  made  up  of  Augustines  and 
Chrysostoms.  There  is,  I  know,  a  great  deal  of  preach- 
ing that  misses  the  mark  because  its  arrows  are  poorly 
aimed ;  a  great  deal,  too,  that  is  mere  wind,  that  panders 
to  a  morbid  taste,  that  is  sensational  and  vulgar ;  a  great 
deal  that  has  no  doctrinal  backbone,  and  is  spongy  with 
liberal  and  humanitarian  vagueness.  I  know,  moreover, 
not  a  little  of  it  is  hard  and  heavy  and  dull,  —  the  lame 


The  Christian  Ministry  at  the  Bar  of  Criticism,     27 

issues  of  prosaic,  plodding,  feeble  souls,  whom  Provi- 
dence, for  some  inscrutable  reason,  has  transferred  to 
the  sacred  desk  from  the  highways  of  hopeless  medioc- 
rity. And  yet  it  is  my  belief,  that  in  no  previous  period 
of  our  religion  has  so  much  of  talent,  culture,  unction, 
and  eloquence  been  devoted  to  the  proclamation  of  God's 
truth  to  a  sinful  world.  No  censor  of  the  pulpit  has  a 
right  to  demand,  or  to  expect,  that  every  preacher  will 
be  a  genius,  any  more  than  he  has  a  right  to  demand 
that  every  one  devoted  to  law,  or  medicine,  or  educa- 
tion, or  journalism,  shall  be  a  genius.  The  fact  is,  the 
Ministry  is  fully  on  a  level  to-day  with  any  other  call- 
ing of  educated  men.'  There  are  qualities  that  have 
become  the  special  idols  of  this  generation,  and  without 
which  no  preacher  especially  can  hope  to  pass  current. 
I  mean  smartness,  pungency,  vivacity,  iiut  in  these  is 
not  the  greatest  power  of  a  great  preacher.  The  main 
thing  is,  that  he  shall  he  what  he  asks  others  to  become  ; 
and,  if  he  be  that,  the  really  great  qualities  —  depth, 
fervor,  sincerity  —  will  be  likely  to  go  with  it ;  also  that 
highest  intellectual  art,  —  the  art  of  saying  great  things 
in  plain  words.  Many  there  are  who  are  growing 
weary  of  rhetoricians,  fine  talkers,  pulpit  gymnasts ; 
many  who  feel  that  they  have  had  already  too  much 
chaff  and  too  little  bread. 

Preaching  is  God's  ordinance :  it  has  become  too  much 
man's  contrivance.  Unless  I  am  greatly  mistaken,  we 
are  now  passing  into  a  period  of  Church  life  when  great 
words  will  not  produce  great  effects,  and  men  will  crave 
the  inner  heat,  rather  than  the  outer  sparkle  of  lan- 
guage.    It  has  been  well  said,  that  "the  day  of  flocking 


28     The  Christian  Ministry  at  the  Bar  of  Criticism. 

after  great  orators  is  not  gone  by,  but  the  day  of  seeing 
through  them  is  come."  "  The  crackling  thorns  of  fine 
speech  "  may  arrest  the  crowd  for  a  brief  moment ;  but 
the  only  power  that  can  hold  them  is  that  of  him  who, 
fired  with  the  flame  from  God's  altar,  preaches  simply, 
earnestly,  — 

"  Those  Christ-like  waj's  which  lead  to  peace. 
The  hearts  of  men  follow  his  word  as  leaves 
Troop  to  wind,  or  sheep  draw  after  one 
Who  knows  the  pasture." 

3.  But,  again,  the  Ministry  is  blamed  for  its  want  of 
self-sacrifice  and  readiness  to  endure  hardship.  Cer- 
tainly a  Ministry  without  these  would  not  be  worth  hav- 
ing. It  would  be  a  shell  without  the  kernel,  a  pretence, 
a  deceit,  a  sham.  It  would  be  as  unlike  the  thing  Christ 
instituted,  as  this  earth  is  unlike  heaven.  It  would  be 
as  an  arm  of  power  bereft  of  its  main  sinew.  God 
would  disown  it.  The  Church  would  die  under  it.  The 
world  would  despise  it.  The  mere  fact  that  it  lives  and 
works  proves  that  it  is  not  to-day  altogether  false  to  the 
law  of  its  being.  This  charge,  then,  on  the  face  of  it, 
can  be  only  partially  true.  How  partially,  can  be  known 
only  by  knowing  what  is  going  on  every  day  in  a  thou- 
sand homes  and  parishes.  I  may  not  here  undertake  to 
lift  the  veil,  and  tell  all  that  lies  behind  it,  —  what  bur- 
dens cheerfully  borne,  what  labors  faithfully  performed 
in  storm  and  frost  and  summer's  heat,  what  distresses 
and  humiliations  of  poverty,  what  anxieties  as  to  the 
fate  of  wife  and  children  when  voice  and  sight  shall 
fail,  what  buffetings  by  vulgar  wealth,  what  contradic- 
tions of  the  ungodly,  what  insolence  and  contumely  from 


The  Christian  Ministry  at  the  Bar  of  Criticism.     29 

coarse  tongues  and  coarser  hearts,  what  coldness  and 
what  Shylock  exactions  by  the  flock,  what  lonely  days 
and  uncheered  toil ;  and  all  confronted  and  endured  by 
men  whom  a  slight  wounds  like  a  blow,  and  an  insult 
cuts  like  a  knife ;  and  this,  too,  with  a  calm  courage, 
an  heroic  patience,  a  life-long  submission,  which  gives 
us  martyrs  for  whom  neither  the  Church  nor  the  world 
offers  a  crown.  True,  darkly,  sternly  true,  is  all  this 
of  some  of  the  Clergy.  Of  how  many,  I  may  not  say. 
They  may  be,  we  may  concede  that  they  are,  a  minor- 
ity,—  a  small  minority,  if  our  judges  so  insist.  But, 
thank  God,  there  are  enough  of  them  to  preserve  the 
honor  and  to  exemplify  the  true  genius  and  the  lofty 
aims  of  the  Christian  Priesthood.  Not  all  the  Clergy  are 
given  over  to  easy  living  in  this  age  of  luxury,  not  all 
are  self-seeking  in  this  age  of  selfishness,  not  all  have 
bowed  the  knee  to  Baal  in  this  age  of  idolatries.  Some 
think  there  is  no  self-sacrifice,  no  willingness  to  endure 
hardships,  because  a  majority  of  the  Clergy  do  not  at 
once  offer  themselves  for  missionary  work  in  heathen 
lands ;  as  though  we  had  no  heathen  at  home,  to  work 
among  whom  tries  a  man's  nerve  and  endurance  and 
self-forgetfulness  as  much  as  to  work  among  Hindus 
and  Chinese,  Zulus  and  Patagonians. 

Others,  again,  would  not  be  convinced  of  the  exist- 
ence of  these  qualities  of  character,  except  they  saw  the 
Clergy  in  hair-shirts  and  feeding  on  locusts  and  wild 
honey ; 

"  Making  the  dust  their  beds,  the  loneliest  wastes 
Their  dwelling,  and  the  meanest  things  their  meat ; 
Clad  in  no  prouder  garb  than  outcasts  wear ; 


30     The  Christian  Ministry  at  the  Bar  of  Criticism. 

Fed  with  no  meats,  save  what  the  charitable 
Give  of  their  will ;  sheltered  hy  no  more  pomp 
Than  the  dim  cave  lends,  or  the  jungle  bush."  ^ 

But,  on  the  other  hand,  is  there  no  truth  whatever  in 
the  charges  ?  Alas  !  with  shame  be  it  said,  our  Minis- 
try, as  a  whole,  is  not  free  from  reproach.  There  is  too 
much  ground  for  blame  in  this  regard.  Let  a  call  be 
given  to  some  distant  field,  and  how  painfully  familiar, 
how  sadly  prominent,  are  the  questions :  What  is  the 
salary?  Is  it  near  a  railroad?  How  far  is  it  from  the 
city?  Is  there  good  society?  Is  there  a  parsonage? 
Is  there  any  provision  for  six  weeks'  vacation?  What 
is  the  custom  about  donations  ?  Is  the  church-edifice 
well  warmed  in  winter  and  properly  ventilated  in  sum- 
mer? Do  the  people  object  to  repeating  a  good  sermon 
within  the  year?  Is  there  any  malaria  in  the  neigh- 
borhood? Are  exchanges  with  brethren  easily  made? 
Are  the  vestry  kind  and  considerate,  and  quite  willing 
to  give  the  rector  his  own  way  ?  Such  questions,  taken 
together  and  pressing  for  immediate  answer,  do  not, 
it  must  be  admitted,  tend  to  recall  either  the  temper 
or  the  work  of  the  Apostolic  Ministry.  They  imply 
very  little  inclination  to  forget  self  and  do  all  for  the 
glory  of  God.  They  have  a  very  unheroic  and  worldly 
flavor.  No  strongholds  of  sin,  no  citadels  of  the  Devil, 
will  be  carried  by  the  men  whose  decision  turns  on  the 
answer  they  get  to  such  questions. 

4.  Again,  the  Ministry  is  blamed  for  a  lack  of  bold- 
ness and  independence  in  thought  and  action.  Boldness 
and   independence,  —  what   is  meant  by  these  words? 

1  «*  The  Light  of  Asia,"  by  Edwin  Arnold. 


The  Christian  Ministry  at  the  Bar  of  Criticism.     31 

All,  I  take  it,  would  not  agree  in  their  definition.  In 
one  school  they  mean  one  thing,  in  another  school  quite 
a  diiferent  thing.  The  Church  has  her  own  idea  of 
these  qualities,  and  of  their  limitations ;  and  she  has 
shown  what  it  is  by  the  leaders  whom  she  has  embalmed 
in  her  memory.  St.  Paul  prayed  for  utterance,  that  he 
might  speak  boldly  the  message  given  him  to  deliver ; 
and  he  did  so  speak  when  he  withstood  St.  Peter  to  the 
face,  and  preached  to  the  men  of  Athens,  of  Corinth,  and 
of  Ephesus.  Athanasius  was  sufficiently  bold  and  inde- 
pendent when  he  stood  against  the  world,  for  the  faith 
once  delivered ;  so  was  Chrysostom  when  with  words  of 
fire  he  rebuked  the  vanities  and  vices  of  his  flock,  from 
the  altar- steps  of  his  cathedral ;  so  were  Ridley  and 
Latimer  when  they  assailed  the  false  doctrine  and  ec- 
clesiastical corruption  of  their  day,  and  accepted  the 
fires  of  Oxford  as  the  penalty.  So,  in  our  own  day, 
were  Selwyn  and  Patteson,  when  they  carried  the  word 
of  life  to  the  savages  of  New  Zealand  and  Melanesia. 
So,  too,  was  the  fearless  Grey  in  his  vindication  of  the 
faith  in  South  Africa.  These  men,  and  others  like 
them,  were  bold  in  declaring  what  had  been  committed 
to  them.  They  were  regardless  of  all  things  that  hin- 
dered them  in  doing  so.  But  they  were  neither  bold 
nor  independent  in  the  sense  now  so  popular.  They  did 
not  deem  themselves  superior  to  the  system  under  which 
they  worked.  They  did  not  invent  new  formulas  of 
belief,  nor  recast  the  traditional  moulds  of  teaching  and 
of  polity.  There  was  about  them  none  of  the  cheap 
glamour  of  what  the  world  calls  originality.  They  were 
not  ambitious  of  founding  new  sects  to  perpetuate  their 


32     The  Christian  Ministry  at  the  Bar  of  Criticism. 

names,  nor  to  overlay  the  old  paths  with  new  ones 
whose  signboards  should  tell  how  they  had  hewn  down 
the  thick  cedars  of  the  early  Councils,  and  bored  through 
mountains  of  speculation.  But  nowadays  no  man  can 
be  bold,  no  man  can  be  independent,  who  does  not  lay 
the  axe  at  the  root  of  venerable  traditions,  or  cast  over- 
board some  portion  of  the  cargo  which,  we  have  good 
reason  to  believe,  God  stored  away  in  the  ark  of  grace 
and  salvation.  Boldness  has  become  recklessness,  and 
independence  rashness ;  both  alike  counting  it  a  merit 
to  scorn  consequences.  With  us,  the  system  is  greater 
than  the  private  judgment ;  the  kingdom  greater  than 
any  individual ;  the  ancient  creeds,  than  any  man's  spec- 
ulation ;  universal  consent,  than  any  man's  dissent ;  the 
old  and  well-worn  liturgies,  than  any  man's  notion  about 
an  edifying  worship.  All  this  may  be  our  misfortune, 
but  certainly  it  is  our  characteristic.  It  cuts  off  many 
and  much-coveted  chances  of  intellectual  fussiness  and 
conceit,  dries  up  many  sources  of  excitement,  narrows 
the  arena  of  gladiatorial  displays  among  theologians, 
and  generally  contracts  the  bounds  of  what  passes  for 
original  thought.  There  are  minds  that  cannot  be  happy 
under  such  conditions ;  that  are  at  peace  only  when  at 
war,  and  see  no  use  for  the  intellect  except  in  showing 
what  fools  our  fathers  were.  There  is  a  sense  in  which 
it  is  our  strength  to  sit  still,  to  accept  what  has  been 
handed  down,  to  stand  fast  in  the  old  ways.  If,  for 
doing  so,  this  generation  will  not  think  us  sufficiently 
bold  and  independent,  there  is  no  help  for  it.  There  is 
a  type  of  these  qualities  that  we  admire,  and  do  what 
we  can  to  embody.     There  is  another  that  must  be  left 


The  Christian  Ministry  at  the  Bar  of  Criticism.     33 

to  others  who  walk  not  with  us,  and  for  whose  devel- 
opment, I  may  add,  neither  earth  nor  heaven  is  large 
enough. 

5.  Again,  we  are  blamed  for  allowing  the  Church 
and  the  world  to  be  too  much  intermingled,  and  com- 
promises of  principle  and  practice  to  take  root  in  our 
average  life.  This  complaint  is  not  from  the  world,  for 
the  world  is  flattered  by  our  imitation  of  its  ways ;  but 
from  the  Church's  own  heart.  Her  best  thinking  and 
purest  living  give  voice  to  the  censure  ;  and  we  have  no 
answer  for  it,  save  a  peccavi  and  a  confiteor.  We  have 
discipline  enough  for  the  Clergy,  but  next  to  none  for 
the  people.  Here  the  fences  are  down,  the  lights  are 
out,  the  watch  is  asleep.  The  only  law  is  that  of  law- 
lessness, the  only  standard  is  what  each  chooses  to  ac- 
cept. I  may  not  enter  upon  the  causes:  I  stop  with 
the  fact.  God's  Word  has  a  great  deal  to  say  on  the 
subject ;  so  had  the  Church  in  her  early  days.  From 
both  we  have  gone  adrift ;  and  so  far  adrift,  that  even  to 
recall  the  Scriptural  or  the  primitive  rule  of  the  Chris- 
tian life,  is  to  bring  upon  one  the  epithets  of  purist, 
ascetic,  sour  censor  of  morals,  stoic,  Pharisee,  hypo- 
crite. And  yet  there  are  the  old  commands  bedded 
and  wedged  into  the  Word  of  Inspiration :  — 

"  Abstain  from  all  appearance  of  evil."  ^ 

"  Be  not  deceived :  evil  communications  corrupt  good  manners."  ^ 
"Be  not  conformed  to  this  world ;  but  be  j'e  transformed  by 
the  renewing  of  3'our  mind."  ^ 

"  Love  not  the  world,  neither  the  things  that  are  in  the  world."* 

1  2  Thess.  V.  22.     2  1  Cor.  xv.  33.     a  Rom.  xii.  2. 
*  First  Epistle  of  St.  John,  ii.  15. 


34     The  Christian  Ministry  at  the  Bar  of  Criticism. 

"  Be  ye,  not  unequally  yoked  together  with  unbelievers  ;  for  what 
fellowship  hath  righteousness  with  unrighteousness?  and  what 
communion  hath  light  with  darkness? "  ^ 

"  Wherefore  come  out  from  among  them,  and  be  ye  separate, 
saith  the  Lord."  ^ 

"  That  ye  ma}'  be  blameless  and  harmless,  the  sons  of  God,  with- 
out rebuke,  in  the  midst  of  a  crooked  and  perverse  nation,  among 
whom  3'e  are  lights  in  the  world."  ' 

And  so  on,  almost  without  limit.  There,  too,  are  the 
Canons  of  the  early  Church,  in  keeping  with  these  Scrip- 
tures. Both  point  to  a  gulf  between  the  Church  and 
the  world,  too  deep  and  too  broad  to  be  crossed  ;  and  yet 
our  modern  religion  has  bridged  it,  and  multitudes  cross 
and  recross  with  an  impunity  which  justifies  in  their 
minds  a  doubt  whether  or  no  there  be  any  such  gulf. 
Professedly  we  stand  on  a  higher  plane  than  that  of  the 
world.  Baptism,  Confirmation,  the  Sacrament  of  Christ's 
Body  and  Blood,  put  us  there.  But  somehow  it  melts 
down  by  easy  stages  into  that  of  the  world,  the  flesh, 
and  the  devil.  Do  I  speak  too  strongly  ?  Recall  the 
pleasures,  the  amusements,  the  occupations,  the  luxuries, 
the  pomps  of  society,  the  vanities  of  fashion,  the  ex- 
travagances of  wealth,  the  self-indulgence  of  the  time. 
That  is  a  sharp  eye  which  can  detect  in  any  of  these 
things  a  radical  difi'erence  between  the  children  of  God 
and  the  children  of  the  world.  There  have  been  some 
foolish  and  superficial  attempts  of  believers  at  asserting 
their  separateness  from  the  world.  Quakerism  tried  it 
with  cut-away  coats  and  broad-brimmed  hats  and  neutral 
tints.     Divers  monastic  orders,  at  sundry  times,  have 

1  2  Cor.  vi.  17.         2  2  Cor.  vi.  14.         s  piiO.  jj,  15. 


The  Christian  Ministry  at  the  Bar  of  Criticism.     35 

tried  it  with  cowls  and  cords  and  iinsandalled  feet. 
Better  such  expedients  than  none  at  all.  But  the  true 
distinction  is  grounded  on  feeling,  conduct,  character ; 
on  voluntary  abstinence,  and  simple  silent  conformity  to 
a  higher  rule,  a  loftier  tone  of  life.  Now,  if  the  rank 
and  file  are  to  be  reclaimed  from  worldliness,  their  leaders 
must  set  the  example.  The  Clergy,  in  this  matter,  must 
bring  forth  works  meet  for  repentance,  if  we  expect  the 
people  to  do  so.  We  are  on  a  current  which  sets 
strongly  toward  a  wiping-out  of  the  boundaries  between 
the  sacred  and  the  secular.  A  subtle  pantheism  is  in 
the  air,  which  by  making  God  all  things,  and  all  things 
God,  eliminates  from  all  moral  life  the  God  of  our  wor- 
ship, the  God  of  the  moral  law :  the  God  in  Christ,  who 
speaks  through  the  Church,  which  is  His  Body ;  through 
the  Priesthood,  which  is  His  witness  unto  the  ends  of  the 
earth ;  and  through  the  lives  of  Christians,  which  are 
ordained  to  be  His  living  epistles  unto  men.  According 
to  this  gospel,  our  houses  and  our  sanctuaries,  our  count- 
ing-rooms and  our  altars,  our  every-day  work  and  our 
acts  of  adoration,  our  indulgences  and  our  denials,-  our 
politics  and  our  religion,  our  dinners  and  our  Eucharists, 
our  sensual  pleasures  and  our  struggles  of  conscience,  are 
all  equally  sacred  and  divine.  This  theory  with  some, 
this  sentiment  with  others,  has  fastened  like  a  cancer 
upon  the  vitals  of  our  Christianity.  It  must  be  cut 
away  with  knife  or  burnt  out  with  cautery,  if  we  would 
save  the  power  as  well  as  the  form  of  godliness. 

6.  The  Ministry  is  charged  with  feeble  and  shallow 
methods  in  the  cure  of  souls.  It  deals  too  much,  it  is 
said,  with  assemblies,  and  too  little  with  individuals. 


36     The  Christian  Ministry  at  the  Bar  of  Criticism. 

There  is  excess  of  preaching,  but  neglect  of  personal 
guidance.  We  exhort  and  admonish,  but  do  not  edify. 
There  is  much  hewing  of  timber,  and  not  much  building. 
The  sheep  are  folded,  but  are  not  known  by  name. 
Strictly  pastoral  duty  has  degenerated  into  bell-pulls, 
and  card  exchanges,  and  family  chats  on  all  subjects 
save  the  one  for  which  the  pastorate  exists.  The  herd- 
ing together  of  the  young  on  the  Lord's  Day,  under 
teachers  who  themselves  need  to  be  taught  the  elements 
of  the  faith,  has  taken  the  place  of  priestly  guidance 
and  authority  in  expounding  the  Word.  All  this  is  said, 
and  who  will  deny  that  there  is  reason  for  saying  it  X 
How  many  souls  need  help  that  do  not  get  it !  How 
many  are  fighting  temptations,  every  nerve  of  the  con- 
science, every  sinew  of  the  will,  tense  with  the  agony  of 
the  strife,  and  yet  with  no  hand  from  without  to  press 
home  the  Cross,  and  no  voice  to  cry,  "  By  this  sign  shalt 
thou  conquer  " !  How  many  are  plunged  first  into  the 
shadows  of  doubt,  and  then  into  the  darkness  of  despair, 
with  no  arm  of  strength  at  hand  to  unbar  the  shutters 
and  let  in  the  light !  Never  before  were  there  so  many 
minds  in  the  Church  in  which  the  joints  of  faith  were 
loosened ;  never  before,  so  many  afloat  upon  the  unsteady 
and  turbid  sea  of  speculation ;  never  before,  so  many 
inquirers,  or  so  many  in  painful  suspense.  Sermons  say 
too  much  or  too  little  in  such  cases.  The  individual 
soul,  in  the  deep  separateness  of  its  own  personality, 
must  be  grappled  with,  and  a  rope  thrown  to  it  from  the 
solid  banks  through  which  sweeps  the  current  of  passion 
or  of  doubt.  And  yet  it  is  just  at  this  time,  and  amid 
this  want,  that  we  are  told  by  a  distinguished  authority 


The  Christian  Ministry  at  the  Bar  of  Criticism.     37 

in  the  Church,  that  "  the  last  thing  which  a  thinking 
man  will  do  in  spiritual  perplexity  is  to  consult  his 
clergyman ;  because  he  knows  that  his  clergyman  has 
never  been  trained  to  minister  to  a  mind  diseased ;  be- 
cause he  feels  that  he  shall  probably  be  snubbed  for  his 
doubts,  and  told  that  difficulties  which  are  to  him  very 
real  are  no  difficulties  at  all."  ^  I  state  the  case,  and 
there  leave  it.     Let  those  that  have  ears  to  hear,  hear. 

7.  But,  to  take  up  another  ground  of  censure,  the 
Ministry  is  arraigned  for  its  lack  of  enterprise  and  its 
feeble  faculty  of  organization.  The  facts  are  before  us, 
and  there  is  no  dispute  about  them.  Let  us  look  at 
them  as  they  are,  and  profit  by  what  they  teach.  In 
platform  addresses,  in  Convention  reports,  and  in  con- 
gratulatory speeches,  we  now  and  then  wax  happy  over 
our  achievements,  and  make  the  most  of  what  material 
we  have  for  eulogy  and  mutual  admiration.  But  such 
moods,  however  enjoyable,  do  not  change  the  facts.  It 
is  a  fact,  that  we  have  in  this  century  octupled  our 
Bishops  and  Clergy,  our  dioceses  and  parishes,  our  com- 
municants and  offerings.  It  is  a  fact,  that  we  have  in  a 
yet  greater  ratio  advanced  in  social  influence  and  public 
prominence.  But  it  is  also  a  fact,  that  in  the  same  time 
the  population  and  resources  of  the  country  have  mul- 
tiplied, not  eight,  but  eighteen  fold.  It  is  a  fact,  too, 
that  we  have  had  not  only  unexampled  opportunities  of 
growth,  but  equally  unexampled  incentives  to  make  the 
most  of  them.  In  footing  up  the  results,  we  may  justly 
claim  that  our  difficulties  shall  be  duly  considered.  To 
recite  these  in  detail  would  be  a  familiar  story.  It  is 
1  Dean  Alford's  Essays  and  Addresses,  p.  147. 


38     The  Christian  Ministry  at  the  Bar  of  Criticism. 

enough  to  recall  in  a  general  way  the  extra  weights  im- 
posed upon  us  by  the  logic  of  events.  It  is  known  that 
this  Church  had  a  bad  start  in  the  ecclesiastical  race ; 
that  it  began  with  a  polity  stifled  and  mutilated  by  the 
folly  and  neglect  of  the  Mother  Church ;  that  it  came 
out  of  the  Revolution  saddled  with  popular  prejudices ; 
that  it  took  one  generation  to  establish  the  fact  that  it 
had  a  right  to  exist  on  American  soil,  and  to  prove  that 
its  growth  would  not  necessarily  endanger  the  liberty  of 
the  Republic.  It  is  known,  too,  that  it  required  another 
generation  to  soften  the  rancorous  hate  of  sectarian  op- 
position to  prelates  and  prayer-books.  All  this  is  known 
and  admitted.  And  yet,  let  our  hinderances  and  trials 
be  rated  as  they  may,  who  will  claim  that  the  growth, 
the  power,  the  influence  of  the  Church,  are  to-day  what 
they  ought  to  be  %  That  would  be  an  uncandid  tongue 
that  would  portray  our  past  as  one  of  glory  and  might, 
or  that  would  represent  it  as  abounding  in  tokens  of 
aggressive  enterprise,  or  of  strong  and  energetic  meth- 
ods for  rallying  the  hearts  and  wills  of  God's  people,  or 
for  turning  to  the  best  account  sources  of  power  always 
latent  in  Christ's  Body.  We  find  proofs  enough  of  a 
quiet,  orderly,  conservative  spirit,  and  of  a  due  sense 
of  corporate  dignity ;  but,  alas !  how  few  of  the  con- 
sciousness of  a  great  mission  to  the  rising  empires  of 
this  continent,  or  of  a  solemn  and  resolute  purpose  to 
achieve  it!  Certainly  the  retrospect  is  not  inspiring.  It 
is  almost  barren  of  kindling  memories,  and  quite  devoid 
of  freshening,  salient  enthusiasms,  that  roll  up  against 
adverse  winds  and  a  darkened  sky,  flooding  torpid  souls 
and  waste  places  with  holy  fire. 


The  Christian  Ministry  at  the  Bar  of  Criticism.     39 

8.  I  have  now  to  notice  a  group  of  faults  imputed  to 
the  Ministry  by  the  world  of  letters  and  science,  by  the 
world  of  politics,  and  by  the  world  of  social  reform. 

It  is  alleged  by  the  first,  that  the  Clergy,  as  a  rule,  are 
deficient  in  culture,  and  have  too  little  sympathy  with 
the  aims  or  the  methods  or  the  results  of  science.  The 
first  thing  to  be  settled  •  about  culture  is  its  meaning. 
"  The  Greeks  had  their  -n-aiMa.  The  Latins  had  their 
humanitas.  The  modern  Germans  have  then*  Bildung" 
We  attempt  to  express  the  same  thing  by  "  culture." 
Substantially  it  is  the  full  and  harmonious  development 
of  the  whole  man.  But  the  great  underlying  question  is. 
How  is  such  development  to  be  reached?  Shall  it  be  by 
taking  the  road  travelled  by  the  Greeks  and  Romans,  or 
that  so  well  worn  by  German  feet  in  these  later  days  ? 
Shall  Goethe  be  our  guide,  with  his  subtle  intellectu- 
ality and  sensuous  aestheticism ;  or  Matthew  Arnold  with 
his  revamped  Attic  theory  about  "sweetness  and  light;" 
or  Spencer  and  Huxley,  who  confine  the  means  and  ends 
of  our  development  within  the  area  of  the  phenomenal 
world  ?  Or  shall  it  be  the  Galilsean  Teacher  who  said, 
"  Seek  ye  first  the  kingdom  of  God,"  and,  "  Be  ye  per- 
fect as  your  Father  in  heaven  is  perfect"?  It  is,  in  fact, 
the  old  issue  "  between  the  grace  that  went  forth  from 
Jerusalem,  and  the  gifts  that  radiated  from  Athens ; " 
between  man  starting  from  and  returning  to  himself, 
and  man  beginning  with  God  and  ending  in  God.  If 
this*  notion  of  culture,  now  so  strongly  pushed,  aims  at 
the  complete  and  proportionate  evolution  of  all  our  fac- 
ulties, so  does  the  Christian  religion.  But  as  the  object 
of  religion  is  GodUke  perfection,  and  the  object  of  cul- 


40     The  Christian  Ministri/  at  the  Bar  of  Criticism. 

ture  human  perfection,  so  it  may  be  argued  that  religion 
is  greater  and  more  all-embracing  than  culture,  by  so 
much  as  God  is  more  so  than  man :  if  this  be  so,  reli- 
gion includes  culture  as  the  greater  includes  the  less. 
In  theory,  certainly,  religion  legitimates  and  encourages 
the  most  exhaustive  development  of  human  nature  on 
all  sides  and  in  all  ways.  To  all  natural,  it  superadds 
many  supernatural  incentives ;  it  provides  for  the  intel- 
lectual, the  moral,  and  the  eesthetic ;  it  opens  out  and 
stimulates  the  highest,  by  holding  in  subjection  the 
lowest.  Spirit,  soul,  flesh ;  conscience,  intellect,  appe- 
tite ;  will,  understanding,  sensibility ;  holiness,  thought, 
beauty :  the  right,  the  true,  the  graceful,  —  this  is  the 
gradation,  starting  with  the  highest,  of  what  is  in  man 
approved  by  the  best  philosophy  as  well  as  by  Christian- 
ity. The  man  struggling  to  become  the  perfect  man  in 
Christ  Jesus  must  be  trained  according  to  this  order, 
and  all  the  time  with  a  conscious  reference  to  a  type 
of  completeness  which  as  far  transcends  the  loftiest  ideal 
of  culture  as  the  infinite  the  finite,  the  eternal  the 
measures  of  time.  Theoretically,  then,  the  Christian 
believer,  and  especially  the  Christian  Priest,  ought  to 
aim,  not  only  at  the  grace  and  symmetry  of  character 
which  culture  so  habitually  magnifies,  but  at  other  and 
higher  tastes  and  faculties,  which  culture  has  neither 
the  power,  nor  in  its  pagan  and  in  many  of  its  modern 
forms  the  desu'e,  to  confer. 

But  our  critics,  when  forced  to  admit  the  superior 
breadth  and  elevation  of  the  Christian  ideal  as  compared 
with  their  own,  turn  upon  us,  and  challenge  us  to  show 
them  the  lives  that  verify  the   Chiistian  theory.     As 


The  Christian  Ministry  at  the  Bar  of  Criticism.     41 

matter  of  fact,  say  they,  what  one-sided,  angular,  narrow, 
hard  characters,  are  those  of  most  religious  people  and 
of  most  Clergymen!  There  may  be  much  piety,  but 
there  is  little  sweetness ;  much  devotion,  and  but  little 
grace  and  refinement;  a  loud  clamor  about  light,  and 
little  of  one  very  needful  and  lovely  sort  of  light, — 
the  light  which  brings  into  relief  and  glorifies  the 
rounded  fulness  to  be  seen  in  the  actual  life  of  nature 
and  in  the  ideal  life  of  man.  Scan,  say  they,  the 
list  of  names  which  have  been  canonized;  run  over 
the  roll  of  saints  and  worthies,  scholars  and  preachers, 
priests  and  pastors,  thinkers  and  leaders,  nearest  and 
dearest  to  the  ecclesiastical  mind;  and  point  out  one 
to  be  compared  for  fulness,  completeness,  symmetry, 
and  grace,  with  Pericles  of  old  Athens ;  or  for  geniality, 
refinement,  and  versatility,  with  the  poet  of  Weimar. 
Of  will-power,  of  earnestness  and  fervor,  of  deep  con- 
victions and  noble  aspirations,  of  self-denials  and  sacri- 
fices, of  heroic  courage  and  undaunted  purpose,  they 
had  all  that  mortals  can  have.  But  these  qualities,  be- 
cause of  the  narrow,  sharp  lines  on  which  they  wrought, 
and  of  the  things  which  they  excluded  or  underrated, 
issued  in  deformity.  To  some  of  them,  this  life  was 
a  lean  and  shi'ivelled  thing; 

"A  moan,  a  sigh,  a  sob,  a  storm,  a  strife." 

A  world  of  Raphaels  and  xlngelos  would  have  been 
wasted  on  some  of  them ;  a  world  of  Wordsworths  and 
Tennysons,  on  others ;  and  a  world  of  Beethovens  and 
Handels,  on  the  rest.  They  lived  so  much  in  the  other 
world,  that  they  had  little  time  and  less  inclination  to 


42     The  Christian  Ministry  at  the  Bar  of  Criticism. 

know  much  of  this  except  its  sin  and  sorrow.  And  yet, 
if  there  be  that  other  world,  it  is  no  more  God's  world 
than  this. 

Now,  to  all  this  there  is  a  twofold  answer.-  The 
Christian  ideal  is  perfect ;  the  ideal  of  culture,  only  an 
attempt,  a  vague  guess,  at  the  perfect.  As  is  a  man's 
ideal,  so,  on  the  whole,  will  be  his  life ;  at  least,  toward 
it  will  be  the  drift  of  his  life.  It  is  better  to  be  on  the 
road  to  the  perfect,  though  standing  afar  oif  from  it, 
than  to  struggle  toward  and  finally  realize  an  ideal  that 
is  as  far  beneath  the  perfect  as  the  clouds  are  beneath 
the  farthest  sky. 

Again,  the  present  limitations  of  our  being  render  it 
impossible  that  one  man  can  be  complete  in  every  thing. 
To  choose  one  vocation  is  to  turn  away  from  other 
vocations.  Success  is  possible  only  by  concentration. 
Greatness  was  never  won  by  scattered  energies  or  di- 
vided purposes.  To  burn  up  the  barriers  that  hedge  in 
genius,  its  rays  must  focalize.  Luther  could  not  have 
been  Tintoretto  and  Luther  besides.  Pusey  could  not 
have  been  Ruskin  and  yet  be  Pusey  too.  All  gifts  and 
faculties  are  not  marshalled  under  any  one  will.  There 
are  many  moulds  of  character,  but  no  one  character 
can  fill  them  all.  The  symmetry  and  fulness  so  much 
glorified  by  culture  are  a  dream,  and  the  man  who  at- 
tempts them  will  ooze  out  into  feebleness  and  defeat. 
This  is  as  true  of  the  clerical  as  of  other  callings.  It 
has  its  own  line,  and  to  follow  it  many  things  must  be 
put  aside.  And  so  the  Clergy  may  not  be  artists,  and 
yet  be  fond  of  art ;  may  not  be  musicians,  and  yet  be 
lovers  of  music ;  may  not  be  votaries  of  literature,  and 


The  Christian  Ministry  at  the  Bar  of  Criticism.     43 

yet  be  alive  to  the  best  issues  of  literary  genius ;  may 
not  be  naturalists,  and  yet  thrill  with  nature's  sweetness 
and  beauty ;  may  not  be  society-men,  and  yet  be  open 
to  the  charms  and  graces  of  genial  fellowship.  And  so 
they  generally  are,  because  they  are  men  of  educated 
tastes  and  trained  powers.  If  they  be  narrow,  they  are 
so  only  as  all  men  are  narrow  who  have  a  supreme 
object  in  life.  If  they  be  hard  and  angular,  they  are  so 
only  as  intensity  of  aim  interferes  with  the  softness  and 
roundness  possible  only  to  natures  that  bask  in  the  sun- 
shine and  float  with  the  current.  In  thus  faulting  the 
Clergy,  I  hold  that  this  new  gospel  of  culture,  masked 
as  it  is  in  old  pagan  tastes  and  Athenian  longings,  is 
guilty  of  a  silly  impertinence.  We  may  not  be  Goethes 
or  Matthew  Arnolds,  but  surely  we  are  not  "  philistines  " 
because  God's  priests  and  Christ's  deputies. 

But  the  Clergy  are  charged  also  with  having  too  little 
sympathy  with  the  progress  of  science.  This  is  an  old 
charge,  and  will  be  disposed  of  in  few  words.  \Miat 
passes  for  science,  they  may  not  always  admire ;  but 
over  the  genuine  progress  of  science,  none  rejoice  more 
than  they.  To  say  that  they  are  not  friendly  to  all  true 
knowledge,  is  a  foolish  and  wicked  libel.  The  Clergy 
are  nervous,  it  is  said,  over  new  discoveries,  lest  some- 
thing turn  up  which  will  undermine  the  house  they  live 
in,  and  put  an  end  to  their  occupation.  On  the  con- 
trary, if  they  have  no  special  liking  for  much  of  the 
science  of  the  day,  it  is  for  the  best  of  reasons.  They  are 
offended,  and  justly  so,  at  its  meddling  with  things  that 
do  not  and  can  not  fall  within  its  range,  at  its  supercilious 
dogmatism,  at  its  frequent  substitution  of  imagination 


44     The  Christian  Ministry  at  the  Bar  of  "Criticism. 

for  induction,  of  guesses  for  ascertained  truth,  at  its  rash 
and  hasty  generalizations,  at  its  ever-changing  front,  and 
its  ever-shifting  testimony.^  Why  should  we  not  be 
disgusted,  when  it  tells  us  of  effects  which  have  no 
adequate  cause,  of  wonderful  adaptations  which  have 
no  intelligent  source  ;  of  the  reign  of  law,  when  what  it 
calls  laws  can  be  so  called  only  by  courtesy,  or  by  the 
jugglery  of  language ;    of  the  eternity  of  matter,  and 

1  A  noteworthy  example  of  this  is  the  evolution  theory.  It  is  amaz- 
ing, with  what  assurance  the  advocates  of  this  theory  presume  upon  the 
credulity  of  unscientific  minds  ;  and  it  is  still  more  so,  to  see  how  many 
educated  minds  are  ready  to  accept  as  ascertained  truth  an  unproven 
hypothesis.  We  are  made  to  feel  every  day,  that  they  are  to  be  regarded 
as  of  a  very  slow  turn  of  mind  who  prefer  to  wait  for  more  light ;  and 
yet  here  is  some  of  the  latest  and  most  trustworthy  testimony  on  the 
subject :  At  the  recent  annual  meeting  of  the  Victoria  Philosophical  Insti- 
tute, held  in  London,  it  was  reported,  after  careful  analysis  of  the  various 
theories  of  evolution,  by  Professor  Stokes,  F.R.  S  ,  Sir  J.  Bennett,  vice- 
president,  R.S.,  Professor  Beale,  F.R.S.,  and  by  others  of  equally  high 
standing  in  the  world  of  science,  that  as  yet  no  scientific  evidence  had 
been  met  with  giving  countenance  to  the  theory  that  man  had  been 
evolved  from  a  lower  order  of  animals  ;  that  Professor  Virchow  had 
declared  that  there  was  a  complete  absence  of  any  fossil  type  of  a 
lower  stage  in  the  development  of  man  ;  and  that  any  positive  advance 
in  the  province  of  prehistoric  anthropology  had  actually  removed  us 
farther  from  proof  of  such  connection,  —  namely,  with  the  rest  of  the 
animal  kingdom.  In  this  Professor  Barrande,  the  great  paloeontologist, 
has  concurred,  declaring  that  in  none  of  his  investigations  had  he  found 
any  one  fossil  species  develop  into  another.  In  fact,  it  would  seem  that 
no  scientific  man  had  yet  discovered  a  link  between  man  and  the  ape, 
between  fish  and  frog,  or  between  the  vertebrate  and  the  invertebrate 
animals.  Further,  there  was  no  evidence  of  any  species,  fossil  or  other, 
losing  its  peculiar  characteristics  to  acquire  new  ones  belonging  to  other 
species:  for  instance,  however  similar  the  dog  to  the  wolf,  there  was  no 
connecting  link;  and  among  extinct  species  the  same  was  the  case, — 
there  was  no  gradual  passage  from  one  to  another.  Moreover,  the  first 
animals  that  existed  on  the  earth  were  by  no  means  to  be  considered  as 
inferior  or  degraded. 


The  Christian  Ministry  at  the  Bar  of  Criticism.     4:5 

the  nothingness  of  spirit ;  of  moral  liberty  as  a  fiction 
of  the  brain  or  a  delusion  of  the  heai't;  of  life  self- 
created  out  of  death ;  of  organization  produced  by  that 
which  is  incapable  of  organizing  itself;  of  no  God  save 
one  that  shall  be  the  counterpart  of  ourselves,  —  the 
phenomenal  reflection  of  a  phenomenal  universe ;  of  no 
truth  save  that  of  things  as  they  appear ;  of  no  obliga- 
tion to  believe  any  thing  which  cannot  be  proved  by 
logical  demonstration  ?  What  wonder,  I  say,  that  they 
who  are  set  apart  by  conviction  and  by  formal  ordination 
to  widen  out  and  deepen  life  by  keeping  it  abreast  of 
the  infinite  and  everlasting,  and  to  fill  it  with  a  sense 
of  obligation  and  reverence  toward  a  supreme  Law- 
giver as  well  as  toward  law ;  toward  a  God  whom  the 
heart  can  love  and  adore,  as  well  as  toward  intellect 
and  matter,  —  what  wonder  that  such  men  should  not 
be  drawn  into  relations  of  friendly  sympathy  with  such 
aims,  such  methods,  such  results  ?  It  would  be  treason, 
and  cowardice  to  profess  what  it  is  impossible  for  them 
to  feel.  Let  science  rise  to  its  true  mission,  stick  to 
its  own  business,  bear  itself  with  becoming  modesty  in 
the  presence  of  mysteries  beyond  its  reach :  let  it  make 
room  for  the  Providence  of  a  moral  Governor,  as  well 
as  for  the  fatalism  of  law;  for  faith,  as  well  as  for 
demonstration ;  for  cumulative  probability  in  the  moral 
world,  as  well  as  for  the  logic  of  induction  in  its  own 
world  ;  for  will-force  and  spirit-power,  as  well  as  for 
mechanical  and  chemical  energy ;  for  life  as  the  parent, 
not  the  child,  of  material  organization  ;  for  the  instincts 
and  functions  of  human  consciousness,  as  well  as  for 
cells  and  fossils  and  gases ;   for  sin,  its  penalties   and 


46     The  Christian  Ministry  at  the  Bar  of  Criticism. 

remedies,  as  well  as  for  protoplasm ;  for  religion,  as 
well  as  for  sociology ;  for  man  seeking  after  immor- 
tality, as  well  as  for  man  seeking  to  conquer  nature 
and  turn  it  to  the  best  practical  account,  —  let  it  do 
these  things,  and  so  develop  into  a  larger  and  nobler 
power  than  it  now  is,  and  it  will  find  no  more  admiring 
and  ardent  friends  than  among  the  Clergy.  This, 
briefly,  is  their  position.  There  can  be  no  other  unless 
they  renounce  their  vocation,  and  throw  their  birth- 
right to  the  winds. 

But  the  Clergy  have  no  sooner  run  the  gauntlet  of 
culture  and  science  than  they  are  confronted  by  that 
of  political  ethics.  Their  censors  are  as  numerous  as 
the  interests  which  are  influenced  by  their  action.  The 
nation,  it  is  said,  has  a  conscience,  as  well  as  the  indi- 
vidual ;  and  it  is  asserted  that  the  Clergy  have  not  dealt 
with  it  as  faithfully  as  they  ought,  and  hence  its  dete- 
rioration. It  is  not  as  honest  and  resolute  as  it  once 
was ;  and  they,  it  is  charged,  are  largely  responsible  for 
the  decline.  The  highest  form  of  moral  power  is  vested 
in  them.  They  are  commissioned  to  speak,  and  it  is 
their  business  to  speak  with  authority,  not  only  on 
religion,  but  on  morals  ;  and  for  the  reason  that  the  two 
cannot  be  divorced  either  in  the  treatment  of  the  in- 
dividual or  of  the  nation.  If  theii'  claim  be  just,  they 
have  special  gifts  from  God  which  are  intended  to  make 
their  pleading  efi"ective.  It  is  for  them,  beyond  all 
others,  to  discern  right  from  wrong,  and  to  give  warning 
of  the  approach  of  evil.  If  there  be  special  tempta- 
tions, it  is  for  them  to  show  the  people  how  to  grapple 
with  them.     And  if  things  go  wrong,  if  the  moral  sense 


The  Christian  Ministry  at  the  Bar  of  Criticism.     47 

of  the  people  fall  off  in  purity  and  vigor,  if  life  grow 
corrupt,  and  iniquity  multiply,  and  society  drift  into  the 
downward  path,  on  the  Clergy  must  be  laid  the  chief 
responsibility  for  such  results.  Now,  it  so  happens,  that, 
in  the  general  belief,  our  life  has  of  late  years  been 
changing  for  the  worse ;  and  if  our  fathers  could  see  us, 
they  would  be  not  more  astonished  than  ashamed  at  the 
extent  of  the  change.  True,  the  Clergy  may  plead  that 
the  State  does  not  sanction  their  existence  as  an  order, 
nor  provide  for  their  support,  nor  formally  invite  their 
co-operation.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  it  is  true  also 
that  they  have  full  liberty  to  exercise  such  sway  over 
the  national  will  as  then-  high  moral  authority  ought  to 
wield.  They  are  none  the  less  guides  and  conservators 
of  the  public  conscience,  because  they  are  not  paid 
functionaries  of  the  State.  Let  this  be  granted,  and 
let  it  be  granted  also  that  a  scapegoat  is  needed  to  bear 
the  sins  of  the  people,  the  Minis trj',  I  contend,  do  not 
desei-ve  to  be  singled  out  for  that  purpose.  They  may 
not  have  done  all  they  could  to  avert  the  moral  disasters 
which  have  befallen  us,  but  they  are  not  mainly  respon- 
sible for  them.  Where  many  causes  have  been  at  work 
to  produce  a  certain  result,  it  is  illogical  and  unfair  to 
say,  that,  if  one  of  these  causes  had  worked  differently, 
the  total  result  would  have  been  radically  different.  It 
is  undoubtedly  true,  that  the  great  object  of  the  Min- 
isters of  Christ  in  dealing  with  the  nation  is  to  implant 
righteousness,  and  to  expel  whatever  opposes  it;  and  yet 
laboring,  as  they  do,  in  the  midst  of  many  forces  which 
they  can,  at  the  best,  only  partially  control,  it  were  at 
once  foolish  and  wrong  to  declare  then*  work  a  failiure. 


48     The  Christian  Ministry  at  the  Bar  of  Criticism. 

and  themselves  false  to  their  trust  because  they  have  not 
succeeded.  If  it  is  said  that  no  land  ever  presented  to 
the  Church  such  opportunities  for  great  and  enduring 
conquests  over  the  minds  and  hearts  of  men,  it  may  be 
said  also,  and  with  equal  truth,  that  no  land  ever  threw 
obstacles  so  formidable  in  the  way  of  such  conquests. 
The  sudden  greatness  and  unprecedented  prosperity  of 
the  nation  have  developed  equally  sudden  and  unprece- 
dented temptations.  The  lust  of  wealth  and  the  lust  of 
power  have  been  followed  by  ambitious  luxury  and  the 
coarse  greed  of  pleasure.  Our  very  liberty  of  speech 
and  action  has  spawned  a  brood  of  perils  and  vices 
peculiar  to  itself.  In  other  times  and  in  other  lands, 
the  idolatry  of  kings  and  oligarchies  and  aristocracies 
may  have  crippled,  debased,  and  cursed  the  masses  ;  but 
we  have  found  to  our  cost  a  worse  danger,  a  more  por- 
tentous vice,  in  the  self-worship,  the  self-adulation,  the 
proud  self-sufficiency,  of  the  people  themselves.  A  self- 
idolizing  democracy,  tolerating  no  check  save  that  of  its 
own  will  or  its  own  passion  and  caprice,  involves  in  itself 
the  worst  evils  that  can  threaten  a  nation.  There  is  no 
tyranny  so  unreasonable,  reckless,  and  exacting  as  the 
possible  tyranny  of  such  a  power.  It  allows  itself  to  be 
plundered  by  monopolies  and  corporations  who  begin  as 
its  creatures,  and  end  as  its  masters.  It  delights  in  the 
flatteiy  and  tamely  acquiesces  in  the  corruption  of  the 
demagogues  whom  it  has  educated ;  and,  as  for  minorities 
who  dare  to  oppose  it,  there  is  but  one  fate  for  them,  — 
either  to  change  their  ground,  and  go  with  the  current, 
or  to  submit  to  any  spoliation  of  rights  and  property 
which  the  strong  may  choose  to  inflict  upon  the  weak. 


The  Christian  Ministry  at  the  Bar  of  Criticism.     49 

Theoretically  our  democracy  magnifies  the  individual: 
practically  it  swallows  him  up  in  the  multitude.  There 
is  a  delusion  in  it  which  often  flings  a  dark  shadow  on 
its  path,  —  a  delusion  as  to  man's  real  nature;  a  delu- 
sion as  to  his  willingness  to  do  the  right  when  he  sees 
it,  as  to  his  intelligence  being  the  measure  of  his  mo- 
rality, and  as  to  the  cleansing  power  of  a  purely  mental 
development.  Some  of  the  results  are  before  us,  —  a 
bright,  sharp,  scheming,  ambitious,  but  morally  irresolute 
life,  swayed  by  convictions  of  expediency  rather  than  of 
duty,  and  almost  swamped  in  the  worship  of  mammon, 
the  coarsest  and  meanest  idolatiy  under  the  sun ;  the 
social  and  political  conscience  spotted  with  gangrene ; 
the  nation's  soul  sagging  toward  lower  standards ;  the 
decline  of  domestic  purity  going  on  side  by  side  with 
the  boasted  safeguards  of  universal  education.  Now, 
these  mischiefs  and  disasters  are  apparently  part  of  the 
harvest  being  gathered  from  seed  planted  long  since; 
and  if  they  are,  then  no  possible  boldness,  fidelity,  or 
self-sacrifice  on  the  part  of  the  Clergy  could  hold  them 
in  check.  It  is  idle  for  them  to  expose  and  rebuke  vices 
and  corruptions,  unless  they  are  free  to  expose  and  re- 
buke the  tendencies  and  principles  of  government  which 
produce  them.  It  may  be  said  that  they  are  free  to  do 
so ;  but  it  must  be  added,  that,  if  any  of  them  are  rash 
enough  to  use  the  freedom,  they  will  encounter  a  storm 
of  popular  wrath  which  would  drive  them  from  any 
community  in  which  they  ministered.  Finally,  let  it  be 
declared  once  for  all,  that,  so  long  as  the  Nation's  or- 
ganic law  has  no  room  for  God,  the  Christian  Priesthood 
cannot  hope  to  make  any  very  profound  impression  on 


50     The  Christian  Ministry  at  the  Bar  of  Criticism. 

the  Nation's  conscience.  Shall  I  be  told  that  public 
opinion  is  omnipotent,  and  that  the  Clergy  have  as  good 
a  chance  to  shape  that  as  any  other  class  ?  I  reply  that 
public  opinion,  like  the  government  and  social  life 
which  it  sways,  is  moulded  by  forces  born  of  the  system 
which  they  in  turn  irresistibly  control.  It  cannot  be 
lifted  above  its  average  sources,  or  be  held  amenable  to 
the  Christian  standards  which  those  sources  formally 
disavow.  Our  politics  have  become  a  muddy  stream, 
and  the  Church  is  told  that  she  only  befouls  herself  in 
her  attempts  to  purify  it.  No,  she  must  not  meddle  with 
statesmanship,  must  not  discuss  what  belongs  to  Con- 
gresses and  Legislatures,  must  hold  her  tongue  except 
on  the  abstractions  of  political  ethics,  must  stand  aside 
and  be  grateful  for  the  protection  she  enjoys  at  the 
hands  of  the  Republic;  and  yet,  when  the  evil  day 
comes,  and  degeneracy  sets  in,  she  must  meekly  consent 
to  be  reproved  for  her  silence  and  her  unfaithfulness. 
Let  the  Clergy  take  their  share  —  no  more,  no  less  — 
of  the  blame  for  what  has  come  upon  us ;  but  let  them 
protest,  as  they  have  a  right  to,  against  being  singled 
out  as  the  chief  sinners,  but  for  whose  supineness  and 
negligence  our  life  would  be  more  hopeful  than  it  is. 

But>  again,  the  Ministry  has  been  blamed  for  its 
apparent  indiiference  to  what  are  called  the  social  prob- 
lems of  the  age.  Labor,  as  we  hear,  is  in  the  midst 
of  a  determined  struggle  with  capital.  The  poor  are 
demanding  that  something  shall  be  done  to  redress  the 
inequality  between  themselves  and  the  rich.  Those  who 
have  nothing  are  insisting  that  those  who  have  all  shall 
consent  to  some  equitable  division  of  the  wealth  accu- 


The  Christian  Ministry  at  the  Bar  of  Criticism.     51 

mulations  of  society.  The  landless  demand  a  share  of 
the  land-ownership.  Then  there  is  the  war  of  the 
masses  with  privileged  monopolies  and  selfish  corpora- 
tions. And  quite  equal  to  any  of  these  in  the  discussion 
and  excitement  it  engenders  is  the  unsolved  question  of 
what  are  called  woman's  rights.  To  these  must  be  added 
the  plans  and  methods  proposed  for  the  permanent  amel- 
ioration of  pauperized  wretchedness,  and  the  sufferings 
of  the  hundreds  and  sometimes  thousands  in  many  com- 
munities who  are  thrown  out  of  employment  by  the  fluc- 
tuations of  industry  and  the  encroachments  of  labor-saving 
inventions.  Besides  there  are  the  vices  of  drunkenness, 
gambling,  and  licentiousness,  which  roll  a  never-ceasing 
tide  of  iniquity  through  the  arteries  of  social  life.  It 
is  a  formidable  list,  certainly ;  and  it  is  a  formidable 
charge,  too,  that  those  who  are  the  ordained  servants  of 
Christ,  and  therefore  of  humanity,  are  backward  in  their 
duty  toward  questions  which  are  agitating  our  civiliza- 
tion to  its  centre.  Time  is  not  allowed  for  examining 
the  attitude  of  the  Ministry  toward  each  of  these  prob- 
lems.    I  can  speak  only  in  general  terms. 

Now,  if  we  look  into  the  matter  carefully  and  candid- 
ly, it  will  be  found,  I  believe,  that,  so  far  as  the  criti- 
cism has  any  color  of  truth,  it  relates  rather  to  the  way, 
than  to  the  spirit,  in  which  the  Clergy  work.  What- 
ever their  convictions,  they  cannot  join  trades-unions,  or 
communistic  societies,  or  other  outside  secular  methods 
of  agitation  and  reform.  What  they  do  must  be  done 
ordinarily  within  their  own  sphere,  and  by  means  not 
inconsistent  with  their  own  vocation  ;  and  for  this  they 
are  often  harshly,  but  unwisely,  censured.     As  for  their 


52     The  Christian  Ministry  at  the  Bar  of  Criticism. 

aims  and  wishes,  as  for  the  spirit  in  which  they  work, 
it  were  nothing  less  than  a  cruel  slander  to  say  that 
these  are  not  in  accord  with  the  hopes  and  designs  of 
the  best  and  truest  advocates  of  reform.  Does  any  man 
yearn  to  see  removed  from  our  human  lot  all  needless 
and  artificial  inequalities,  and  the  sufferings  engendered 
by  them  ?  They  yearn  for  it  still  more.  Does  any  man 
strive  for  the  things  which  shall  give  to  humanity  the 
unity  and  peace,  the  comfort  and  happiness,  which  it 
craves  ?  They  are  ready  to  lift  that  striving  to  an  agony 
which  has  in  it  too  much  of  conscience  and  charity  to 
allow  any  room  for  dreamy  sentiment. 

"  So  many  woes  they  see  in  many  lands, 
So  many  streaming  eyes  and  wringing  hands,"  — 

that  they  are  habitually  falling  back  for  fresh  inspira- 
tions of  love  and  duty,  upon  One  who  said,  as  no  other 
ever  did  or  could  say  it,  "  Come  unto  Me,  all  ye  that 
are  weary  and  heavy  laden,  and  I  will  give  you  rest." 
Because  of  the  unwillingness  of  the  multitude  to  heed 
these  words,  the  Clergy  see,  as  few  others  do,  why 

"  The  sad  world  waiteth  in  its  misery  ; 

The  blind  world  stumbleth  on  its  round  of  pain." 

By  its  constitution  the  Sacred  Office  is  designed  to  exer- 
cise many  functions,  but  eminently  that  of  consolation ; 
else  it  could  not  reflect  the  mind  that  was  in  Jesus 
Christ,  or  be  the  organ  of  the  Eternal  Comforter,  the 
Holy  Ghost.  It  is  its  special  charge  to  know  and  to 
soften 

"  The  aches  of  life,  the  stings  of  hate  and  loss, 
The  fiery  fever  and  the  ague-shake, 


The  Christian  Ministry  at  the  Bar  of  Criticism,   .  53 

The  slow,  dull  sinking  into  withered  age, 
The  horrible  dark  death,  and  all  the  pangs 
That  go  before." 

This  is  part  of  its  very  being,  —  pei'vades  it  as  blood 
pervades  the  body ;  and  to  say  that  it  has  slight  sym- 
pathy with  man  in  his  wrongs  and  griefs,  or  with  all 
reasonable  measures  for  his  relief,  is  to  say  that  it  has 
neither  a  right  nor  a  name  to  live.  Is  the  mechanic 
pledged  to  his  craft,  the  lawyer  to  the  law,  the  physi- 
cian to  the  healing  art,  the  man  of  letters  to  literature  ? 
So  in  a  still  stronger,  because  more  binding  sense,  is  a 
Priest  of  the  Son  of  God  pledged  to  the  healing  of  the 
sin-sick  soul  and  the  sin-cursed  body.  There  can  be  no 
doubt,  then,  as  to  the  spirit  in  which  the  Ministry  must 
view  all  questions  relating  to  the  well-being  of  mankind. 
In  a  large  sense,  then,  it  must  be  true,  as  has  been  said, 
that  whatever  censure  is  visited  upon  the  Clergy  in 
this  direction  must  refer  to  the  mode  rather  than  the 
temper  of  their  work. 

But  in  regard  to  the  mode,  —  the  best  mode  of  deal- 
ing with  the  ills  of  life,  —  there  must  always  be  a  radical 
difference  of  principle  between  the  Christian  Ministry 
and  the  world  at  large.  As  by  its  own  wisdom  the  world 
knew  not  God,  so  by  its  own  wisdom  it  knows  not  itself, 
nor  the  true  basis  on  which  to  build  its  schemes  of 
amelioration  and  retorm.  Now  it  pushes  toward  its 
favorite  aim,  and  seeks  to  uproot  inequalities  of  lot 
among  its  contending  classes,  by  revolution  and  anarchy ; 
and  now  it  crowds  forward  to  the  same  result  by  changes 
in  the  framework  of  civil  government  and  of  general 
society ;  and  now,  again,  it  presses  into  its  service  the 


54     The  Christian  Ministry  at  the  Bar  of  Criticism. 

powers  of  literature  and  science,  superadding  the  trained 
combinations  of  associations  and  unions.  At  one  time 
it  wields  the  arm  of  physical  power,  at  another  the 
energies  of  a  public  sentiment  more  or  less  moulded  to 
its  will ;  and  then,  again,  it  appeals  to  convictions  of 
interest  and  expediency.  But  it  finds  a  cold,  hard  heart 
to  deal  with,  because  it  is  its  own  heart.  Itself  incur- 
ably selfish,  it  vainly  urges  individual  men  to  be  and  to 
do  what  they  can  be  and  do  only  when  lifted  to  a  higher 
plane,  and  by  a  power  higher  than  themselves,  —  the 
power  of  love.  So  it  comes  to  pass,  that  it  agonizes 
from  age  to  age,  with  baffled  purpose  and  defeated  ener- 
gies. It  seeks  for  unity,  and  finds  discord ;  for  equality, 
and  finds  inequality  growing  with  the  growth  of  the 
most  advanced  forms  of  society ;  for  the  elevation  of 
the  poor,  and  finds  the  gulf  between  them  and  the  rich 
yawning  deeper  and  deeper  as  civilization  multiplies  its 
resources  and  increases  its  wealth.^  And  so  it  will  be, 
so  long  as  the  world  relies  upon  itself.  Its  morality 
rises  no  higher  than  the  doctrine,  "  Every  man  for  him- 
self ; "  and  it  is  impossible  to  reach  the  coveted  goal 
along  this  path.  As  well  expect  that  water  will  run 
up  hill,  or  that  gravity  will  forget  its  own  law. 

1  A  recent  very  able  American  writer  declares,  that,  "  Taking  Europe 
as  a  whole,  and  comparing  the  prices  of  labor  with  the  cost  of  living,  — 
food,  clothing,  and  shelter,  —  it  can  be  proved  that  the  average  European 
peasant  of  the  fourteenth  century,  as  also  of  the  fifteenth,  was  better  off 
relatively  than  the  average  European  peasant  of  the  nineteenth  century." 
A  well-known  English  authority  has  put  the  matter  somewhat  differ- 
ently, but  with  substantially  the  same  conclusion:  "The  upper  classes 
have  more  luxuries,  and  the  lower  classes  moie  liberty;  while,  in  regard 
to  the  substantial  comforts  of  life,  they  are  farther  apart  than  they  were 
three  or  four  centuries  ago.  The  greater  the  wealth  of  the  nation  as  a 
whole,  the  greater  the  inequality  between  its  upper  and  lower  classes." 


The  Christian  Ministry  at  the  Bar  of  Criticism.     55 

The  world  has  never  seen  but  one  enthusiasm  for 
humanity  that  can  cure  its  hurt ;  and  that  was  an  enthu- 
siasm born  not  of  the  will  of  the  flesh,  not  of  letters  or 
philosophy  or  industrial  reforms  or  political  expedients, 
but  of  the  Spirit  of  God  and  the  mission  of  his  Eternal 
Son.  ^It  was  the  Gospel  of  Christ  that  first  taught  a 
man  who  is  his  neighbor,  and  how  his  neighbor  should 
be  treated.  It  was  the  Gospel  of  Christ  that  first  under- 
took the  reconstruction  of  society  on  the  twofold  basis 
of  individual  regeneration,  and  of  the  brotherhood  of  all 
men.  It  was  the  Gospel  of  Christ  that  first  insisted  that 
mere  justice  could  not  right  the  wrongs  of  mankind, 
that  the  world  can  never  realize  its  dream  of  general 
happiness  until  it  shall  learn  how  to  love  mercy  as  well 
as  to  do  justly.  As  the  deputies  and  representatives  of 
Him  who  first  published  these  principles,  and  for  the 
spread  of  which  His  Church  was  instituted,  the  Clergy 
are  obliged  to  shape  all  their  efforts  for  the  amelioration 
of  human  life.  They  have  no  choice.  Their  own  judg- 
ments and  speculations  have  no  place.  This  is  their 
commission,  and  they  must  foUow  it  or  abandon  it.  But 
it  so  happens  that  experience  demonstrates  its  wisdom, 
and  leaves  no  reasonable  doubt  that  it  is  the  panacea 
to  which  the  world  must  resort  at  last,  or  perish  in  its 
sin  and  sorrow.  What  charity  and  benevolence,  what 
retreats  for  the  poor,  what  hospitals  for  the  sick,  what 
mutual-benefit  societies  and  homes  and  asylums  and  pro- 
tectories, what  stated  and  regular  provisions  for  the  relief 
of  the  suffering,  —  what  of  any  or  all  these  there  are  in 
our  modern  life,  are  directly  or  indirectly  the  fruits  of 
that  love  of  which  our  Lord  gave  the  supreme  example 


56     The  Christian  Ministri/  at  the  Bar  of  Criticism. 

in  giving  Himself  for  the  salvation  of  all  men.  The 
Christian  Priesthood  is  often  roughly  handled  because  it 
has  not  made  the  worid  better  than  it  is.  Would  it  not 
be  well  for  its  censors  to  inquire  what  the  world  would  be 
to-day  without  it  ?  The  worst  that  can  be  said  of  it  is, 
that  it  is  like  the  sun  in  the  short,  dark  days  of  winter, 
which,  tempering  but  not  preventing  the  frost,  continues 
to  shine,  though  not  with  sufficient  intensity  to  pierce 
the  clouded  atmosphere  that  envelops  the  earth.  There 
may  be  a  chill  in  the  air  which  searches  the  bones,  and 
yet  there  is  warmth  enough  to  keep  the  blood  in  motion, 
and  the  seeds  of  life  in  the  wintry  soil.  The  Priesthood, 
because  it  is  the  Priesthood  of  Christ,  can  never  satisfy 
the  world.  It  is  and  it  will  be  faulted,  not  so  much 
because  of  what  it  fails  to  do,  as  because  of  the  princi- 
ples and  methods  to  which  it  is  bound  to  adhere. 

In  conclusion,  there  are  two  general  considerations 
on  which  it  may  be  of  use  to  dwell  somewhat,  because 
they  are  related  to  the  topics  that  have  been  under 
review,  and  will  serve  to  define  yet  more  clearly  the 
attitude  of  the  Clergy  toward  some  of  the  leading  social 
and  political  tendencies  in  these  closing  years  of  the 
Century.  The  Clergy,  if  they  know  themselves,  desire 
to  be  en  rapport  with  the  watchwords  of  the  time.  They 
are  well  enough  schooled  in  history  and  in  human  nature 
to  know  that  the  ideals  of  every  generation  are  embodied 
in  the  words  and  phrases  oftenest  upon  the  lips  of  the 
multitude.  Their  cries,  their  mottoes,  their  bannered 
inscriptions,  whether  amid  the  clash  of  arms,  or  the 
passionate  conflicts  of  revolution,  or  the  more  peaceful 
strifes   of  current   politics,  tell,   beyond   all   else,   the 


The  Christian  Ministr)/  at  the  Bar  of  Criticism.     57 

• 

thoughts  seething  in  their  brains,  the  aims  and  resolves 
that  gird  up  their  wills.  Liberty,  equality,  fraternity, 
progress,  honor,  reason,  nature,  science,  country, — these 
are  thrown  out  from  the  common  heart,  as  the  red 
cinders  are  thrown  from  the  heated  u'on  when  drawn 
from  the  furnace.  So  far  from  being  empty  words,  they 
are  revelations  of  what  lies  deepest  in  the  hearts  and 
minds  of  the  people.  It  is  their  weakness,  that  they 
leave  out  religion,  and  therefore  are  fated  to  move  on 
a  plane  below  that  of  the  noblest  powers  which  have 
been  ordained  of  God  to  shape  the  life  of  man.  It  is 
not  so  much  opposition  to  Christianity,  as  the  matter- 
of-course  way  of  ignoring  it,  in  the  attempted  solution 
of  the  problems  of  the  day,  that  constitutes  the  most 
melancholy  feature  of  modern  society.  Whatever  the 
masses  think  in  their  better  moments,  they  act  as  though 
Christianity  were  of  little  consequence  to  them  in  their 
struggles  to  lift  the  burdens  that  oppress  them.  In  the 
attempts  to  recast  the  framework  of  society  and  civil 
government,  so  as  to  check  the  encroachments  of  the 
favored  few,  and  to  protect  the  rights  and  liberties  of 
the  unfavored  many,  they  seem  to  have  concluded  that 
they  have  little  to  expect  from  the  Gospel  of  Christ. 
And  yet  no  message  ever  fell  upon  the  ear  of  man  that 
did  so  much  for  the  individual,  as  against  all  forms  of 
organized  power,  as  that  same  Gospel.  If  we  go  deeply 
enough  into  it,  it  has  more  to  say  about  the  rights  and 
liberties  of  man  as  man,' and  does  more  to  protect  and 
extend  them,  than  all  the  philosophies,  all  the  systems 
of  social  and  political  ethics,  that  have  figured  in  his- 
tory.    In  reality,  then,  as,  on  the  one  side,  the  great 


58     The  Christian  Ministry  at  the  Bar  of  Criticism. 

task  of  the  Church,  speaking  through  the  Clergy,  is  to 
reconcile  modern  knowledge  with  the  Gospel:  so,  on 
the  other,  it  is  her  great  task,  speaking  through  the 
same  instrumentality,  to  reconcile  modem  society  with 
the  Gospel;  to  explain  and  justify  from  the  Christian 
standpoint  the  very  watchwords  which  are  so  dear  to 
the  masses  of  men ;  to  lift  them  into  a  nobler,  larger 
meaning;  to  bind  together  and  energize  them  as  the 
motive  powers  of  a  progress  which  shall  include  the  ad- 
vancement and  purification  of  souls,  hearts,  consciences, 
as  well  as  of  bodies  and  intellects.  Liberty,  equality, 
brotherhood,  honor,  reason,  nature,  country,  individual 
development,  rights,  duties,  —  compare  what  these  are 
upon  the  tongue  of  the  rationalist,  the  socialist,  the 
communist,  the  pattern  reformer,  or  revolutionist  of  the 
modern  type,  with  what  they  were  upon  the  lips  of 
Christ,  or  with  what  they  are  to-day  as  interpreted  by 
a  Gospel  and  a  Church  of  average  faithfulness.  The 
words  are  the  same,  but  how  immeasurably  greater  the 
meanings  and  uses  found  in  them  by  the  latter  than 
those  discerned  in  them  by  the  former!  What  is  the 
freeman  of  the  freest  country  to-day,  compared  with  the 
freeman  in  Christ  Jesus  ?  or  the  votai^y  of  reason  and 
nature  in  the  noblest  school  of  living  thought,  compared 
with  the  devout  and  intelligent  disciple  of  the  incarnate 
Logos?  I  have  spoken  of  the  representative  watchwords 
of  the  time:  they  are  significant  as  uttering  the  dominant 
popular  impulses  of  the  time.  Now,  as  God  is  the  foun- 
tain of  all  lawful  activities  and  movements  emanating 
in  a  secondary  sense  from  the  heart  and  brain  of  man, 
so  God  is  the  source  of  the  power  and  generally  of  the 


Tlie  Christian  Ministry  at  the  Bar  of  Criticism.     59 

drift  of  these  impulses.  He  is  not  more  the  author 
in  outward  nature  of  gravity,  affinity,  magnetism,  elec- 
tricity, than  He  is  the  author  of  the  forces  which  sway 
humanity  in  all  the  normal  spheres  of  its  development. 
It  is  God  who  created  them;  it  is  man  that  by  his 
ignorance  and  waywardness  misinterprets  and  perverts 
them.  Now,  it  is  part  of  the  mission  of  the  Church  of 
Christ  to  correct  the  errors,  to  remedy  the  evils,  to  check 
the  rashness  and  violence,  into  which  the  multitude,  in 
every  age,  fall  by  misdirecting  an  impetus  that  has  its 
origin  in  man's  eternal  Maker  and  Father.  In  per- 
forming this  mission,  the  necessity  is  laid  upon  it  of 
affirming,  from  generation  to  generation,  certain  deep 
and  momentous  truths,  —  an  office,  but  for  which  the 
favorite  reforms,  the  wide-sweeping  changes,  the  great 
revolutions,  of  which  we  read  in  history,  and  about 
which  we  are  thinking  to-day,  would  have  ended,  or  will 
end,  in  barrenness  and  defeat ;  their  fruit  withered  as  by 
an  invisible  curse,  or  turning  to  ashes  on  the  lips  that 
would  eat  it. 

None  other  foundation  can  any  man  lay  than  that  is 
laid,  even  Jesus  Christ.  He  is  the  only  foundation, 
because  He  is  God  manifest  in  the  flesh ;  and,  because 
He  is  so,  no  man,  no  society  of  men,  no  nation,  no 
systems  of  reform,  no  attempts  at  progress,  can  build 
safely  or  wisely,  except  as  they  build  on  this  foundation. 
History  is  a  continuous  commentary  on  this  law. 

"  Whosoever  has  sought  glory,  save  through  Him, 
has  only  succeeded  in  letting  loose  the  deadly  spirit  of 
battle-strife  upon  the  world." 

"  Whosoever  has  sought  to  make  wealth,  apart  from 


60     The  Christian  Ministry  at  the  Bar  of  Criticism. 

Him,  has  only  succeeded  in  brutalizing  men,  by  turning 
immortal  souls  into  a  tortured,  frenzied  machine,  toiling, 
blaspheming  in  its  darkness." 

"  Whosoever  has  sought  science  without  Him  has 
been  ingulfed  in  the  quicksands  of  false  reasoning." 

"  Whosoever  has  clutched  at  power  without  Him  has 
been  plunged  amidst  revolutionary  victories ;  and  who- 
soever has  sought  liberty  without  Him  has  waked  up, 
throttled  by  a  military  force  which,  while  loading  him 
with  fetters,  has  derisively  asserted.  '  I  am  Liberty ! ' " 

I  add  the  following  from  the  same  source :  "It is  God 
Himself,  it  is  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  who  wills  the  grow- 
ing freedom  of  all  men  of  all  nations  in  justice  and 
truth,  and  that  with  a  will  which  becomes  ever  stronger 
as  the  world  goes  on.  Unquestionably  the  evil  of  our 
day  perverts  all  Heaven-sent  movement  in  a  hundred 
ways  ;  but  we  must  resist  the  perversion,  not  the  move- 
ment itself.  And  if  any  one  thing  is  certain,  it  is  that 
we  shall  never  overcome  that  perversion  save  by  means 
of  the  very  movement  itself,  and  of  its  first  principle, 
which  is  God ;  even  as  St.  Paul  did  not  attempt  to  cast 
down  the  shrines  of  idols,  save  by  setting  up  among 
them  the  True  God,  hidden  and  unknown."^ 

The  attitude  of  the  Clergy  is  more  or  less  determined 
by  a  view  of  the  evil  that  is  in  the  world,  which  many 
thinkers,  and  nearly  all  the  existing  schools  of  reformers 
and  humanitarians,  refuse  to  accept.  With  the  latter, 
the  injustice  and  disorder  that  have  existed  from  the 
beginning  are  simply  an  accident,  a  disease  of  the  skin 
or  at  most  of  the  blood,  a  discord  occasioned  by  some 
1  Henri  Peireyve,  pp.  136-141. 


The  Christian  Ministry  at  the  Bar  of  Criticism.     61 

chance  mal-adjustment  of  the  strings  of  the  instrument. 
But  if  the  evil  that  confronts  us  be  only  an  accident, 
a  disease,  a  discord,  the  removal  of  it  is  feasible,  and  it 
is  only  a  question  of  time  and  of  improved  conditions 
and  arrangements  of  human  life.  It  will  be  accom- 
plished by  and  by,  through  the  united  efforts  of  govern- 
ments and  peoples.  Social  progress  tends  toward  this 
result,  and  proposes  it  as  its  grand  aim.  Eveiy  im- 
provement and  advance  of  the  age,  every  new  move- 
ment of  thought,  every  broken  and  discredited  tradition 
of  the  past,  every  upheaval  of  existing  forms  of  civil 
polity,  are  hailed  as  symptoms  of  approach  to  it.  Sat- 
urated with  sentimental  idealism,  this  tone  of  thought 
fondles  this  material  world,  and  expects  perfection  to 
issue  out  of  it.  Rousseau,  the  first  great  master  of  this 
school,  at  the  close  of  the  last  century  laid  the  founda- 
tions on  which  many  a  passionate  dreamer  has  since 
built  superstructures  of  hay,  straw,  and  stubble.  He 
began  with  a  belief  in  the  absolute  purity  of  human 
nature.  In  his  view,  man's  original  tendencies  are  all 
good,  and  the  evils  of  society  are  nothing  more  than  the 
results  of  bad  systems  of  education.  From  the  start, 
adverse  circumstances,  in  no  way  inherent  in  the  nat- 
ural order  of  things,  thwart  the  noble  aspii-ations  of  the 
human  heart.  If  there  be  crooked  growths,  or  alien  and 
discordant  notes,  it  is  an  enemy's  hand  that  has  done  it, 
and  an  enemy,  too,  which  man  on  his  own  proper  plane 
is  able  to  deal  with.  And  so,  consistently  with  his 
theory,  Rousseau  invented  a  scheme  of  human  training, 
run  out  into  elaborate  detail,  which  provides  a  remedy 
for  the  evils  by  the  removal  of  the  bad  systems.     The 


62     The  Christian  Ministry  at  the  Bar  of  Criticism. 

first  thing  to  be  done,  therefore,  was  to  shut  out  the 
influence  of  these  systems  upon  the  pupil's  mind.  There 
was  to  be  no  interference  by  estabhshed  forms  of  con- 
duct, opinions,  creeds.  No  bias  either  way  was  to  be 
allowed.  There  was  to  be  an  absolutely  fair  start  in 
the  race.  Nature  was  to  have  free  course,  and  to  bring 
out  its  originally  good  tendencies  without  let  or  hin- 
derance,  and  so  to  develop  its  perfect  proportions,  and 
consummate  its  designed  growth.  This  rose-colored  con- 
ception of  human  nature  did  not  have  long  to  wait  for 
its  translation  into  a  chapter  of  terrible  realities.  It  was 
practically  formulated  and  applied  by  the  first  French 
Eevolution,  whose  lurid  glare  fell  like  the  hue  of  a 
wide-wasting  plague  on  the  civilized  world.  No  one 
needs  to  be  reminded  of  the  silly,  extravagant  expec- 
tations, or  of  the  wild  fanatical  cries  of  that  movement, 
or  of  its  dreams  of  the  grandeur  of  human  benevolence, 
the  adorable  majesty  of  human  reason,  and  the  near 
advent  of  an  era  of  social  perfection;  nor  need  it  be 
told,  how,  having  escaped  the  nightmare  of  the  old  doc- 
trine of  human  corruption,  the  age  rose  indefinitely  in 
its  self-estimation,  as  well  as  in  its  belief  that  the  time 
had  at  last  come  when  the  possibilities  of  human  nature 
were  to  be  vindicated,  and  one  scheme  of  universal  love 
was  to  embrace  all  mankind,  as  one  people  and  under 
one  law,  —  divisions  of  race,  class,  interest,  language, 
all  swept  away  into  the  sublime  amalgam  concocted  by 
the  illustrious  Swiss  dreamer. 

But  if  this  side  of  the  story  need  not  be  recited  in 
detail,  neither  need  the  other.  The  common  memory 
of  the  world  shudders  even  yet  at  the  horrible  ferocity 


The  Christian  Ministry  at  the  Bar  of  Criticism.     63 

that  accompanied  and  consummated  this  sentimental  out- 
burst. The  flame  once  started  burnt  down  to  the  root, 
and  kept  on  burning  until  it  made  it  quite  clear  at  the 
bar  of  reason,  that  the  ferocity  and  the  sentimentalism 
were  the  joint,  inseparable  progeny  of  the  self-same  error. 
As  has  been  well  said,  "  That  which  keeps  men  patient 
under  the  evils  of  this  present  state  of  things  is  the  idea 
of  their  necessity,  —  the  notion,  indistinct,  but  still  real 
in  their  minds,  that  injustice  and  disorder  are  fundamen- 
tal in  this  visible  system.  That  idea  removed,  all  evil, 
civil  and  economical,  becomes  so  much  gratuitous  and 
superfluous  wrong ;  and  the  apparent  authors  of  it,  so 
many  monsters  of  cruelty,  and  wanton  tyrants,  delighting 
in  inflicting  evil  for  its  own  sake.  Retaliation  to  any 
extent  upon  such  appeared  simple  justice,  and  the  same 
theory  which  produced  extravagant  expectations  pro- 
duced horrible  anger  at  the  facts." 

Nearly  a  centuiy  has  elapsed  since  this  remarkable 
experience  occurred ;  and  yet  there  are  among  us  unmis- 
takable evidences,  that,  while  all  mankind  revolted  at  the 
consequences  of  Rousseau's  conception  of  human  nature, 
and  of  the  evil  that  is  in  the  world,  a  vast  number  have 
clung  to  the  conception  itself.  Various  as  are,  to-day, 
the  philosophical  and  humanitarian  schools  of  reform, 
and  diverse  as  may  be  their  special  tenets,  that  saine 
conception  in  one  form  or  another  is  the  common  root  of 
them  all.  The  "  accident,"  the  "  disease,"  the  "  discord  " 
theory  of  evil,  and  with  it  the  theory  of  the  perfecti- 
bility of  human  nature  latent  in  its  own  consciousness, 
and  self-sufficing  in  its  ovm  power  of  self-evolution,  under- 
lies them  all.     Without  dwelling  upon  the  more  mod- 


64     The  Christian  Ministry  at  the  Bar  of  Criticism. 

erate  and  reserved  of  these  schools,  which  have  not  yet 
developed  quite  far  enough  to  break  down  and  revoke 
the  old  concordat  with  Christianity  as  a  recognized  and 
helpful  auxiliary,  it  is  enough,  perhaps,  to  show  how 
the  two  most  advanced  ones  are  teaching  and  working 
out  the  same  xp^ov  tto-evSos  that  brought  .upon  France 
the  terrors  of  that  stupendous  frenzy  of  a  century  ago. 
Modern  society  is,  no  doubt,  too  wise  to  repeat  the 
frenzy,  though  it  may  not  altogether  escape  the  fever 
that  precedes  and  follows  it.  The  socialism  of  the  time 
embodies  what  are  known  as  the  advanced  ideas  relating 
to  the  reconstruction  of  society  on  what  is  claimed  to  be 
a  more  equitable  basis.     It  presents  itself  in  two  forms, 

—  communistic  and  anti-communistic ;  the  former  being 
vastly  more  radical  and  visionary,  and  therefore  more 
dangerous. 

Communistic  socialism  has  begun  to  figure  very  prom- 
inently as  well  in  the  New  as  in  the  Old  World.  There 
is  no  longer  any  mystery  or  doubt  in  regard  to  its 
characteristic  teachings  and  plans.  It  advocates  the  ab- 
sorption of  the  individual  in  the  community,  the  citizen 
in  the  state.  It  declares  the  individual  as  such  to  have 
no  rights,  and  the  community  to  possess  all  rights.  The 
state  directs  and  determines  all  things,  —  what  every 
man  must  do  and  leave  undone,  the  number  and  character 
of  employments  and  industries.    It  is  to  own  evei-y  thing, 

—  lands,  houses,  factories,  banks,  railways,  vessels.  Pri- 
vate property,  private  business,  is  to  cease ;  and  if  these 
cease,  the  present  motives  to  labor  and  to  save  also  cease 
to  operate.  Under  such  a  regime^  there  wUl  be  neither 
the  ability  nor  the  desire  to  better  one's  condition.     The 


The  Christian  Ministry  at  the  Bar  of  Criticism.     65 

individual  man  is  of  no  account  except  as  he  is  tributary 
to  the  organized  whole.  Minorities  vanish  before  the 
power  of  majorities.  There  is  no  such  thing  in  the  heart 
or  the  life  of  nian  as  sin,  and  so  there  is  no  need  of 
atonement  and  regeneration.  What  we  call  sin  is  only 
an  unfortunate  accident,  a  curable  disease,  a  short-lived 
discord.  The  trouble  that  is  in  the  world  is  created  by 
inequality  of  social  condition.  Level  down  the  hills  and 
valleys,  and  only  a  smooth  even  surface  remains,  over 
which  every  man  can  travel  with  equal  ease.  Break 
down  the  partition-walls,  and  Paradise  rises  into  gloi*y 
and  happiness  as  a  matter  of  course.  For  the  present 
this  gospel  is  only  preached ;  but  when  its  disciples  be- 
come sufficiently  numerous,  the  preaching  is  to  be  fol- 
lowed by  an  armed  and  violent  propagandism.  Equality 
is  to  be  enforced  upon  each  generation  as  it  takes  its  place 
on  the  stage.  Under  such  a  system,  says  a  late  writer, 
"  We  need  no  pity,  only  an  equal  chance.  Humanity 
is  sufficient  unto  itself,  involving  both  Providence  and 
Grace.  There  are  no  families  any  more,  not  even  a 
family,  but  only  a  herd.  Human  brotherhood  is  cant 
and  nonsense  where  no  child  calls  any  man  father  on 
earth,  and  there  is  no  Father  in  heaven.  We  are  not 
brothers,  only  companions,  —  oarsmen  together  in  the 
galley,  oxen  together  in  the  furrow.  We  have  no  favors 
to  ask  of  anybody.  All  we  want  is  wages  for  our  work. 
As  for  work,  organization  takes  care  of  that,  both  to  find 
it  for  us,  and  to  keep  us  at  it.  There  will  be  no  more 
play,  and  there  will  be  no  more  heroism.  Moral  char- 
acter is  of  no  account,  so  long  as  the  work  goes  on. 
Genius  is  of  no  account,  where  the  brightest  must  fare 


66     The  Christian  Ministry  at  the  Bar  of  Criticism. 

no  better  than  the  dullest.  Competition  is  the  name  of 
a  lost  art.  The  arts  are  all  lost.  Coarser  production 
grows  more  coarse.  Production  declines;  every  thing 
declines.  The  alarm  is  sounded.  We  are  going  to 
ruin ;  we  must  all  of  us  work  more,  work  better.  AVho 
shall  make  us  work  more  and  better?  One  another. 
And  so  our  Paradise  bristles  with  bayonets.  So  the 
circle  is  completed,  the  evolution  ends.  The  animal 
began  it ;  the  animal  man,  made  tenfold  more  a  beast, 
finishes  it." 

Comment  is  needless.  It  is  too  monstrous  for  logic, 
too  abhorrent  for  conscience  to  touch;  and  yet  just  this 
is  one  of  the  voices  of  modern  social  science.  Between 
the  lines  we  see  peering  out  the  features  of  Rousseau's 
face,  only  a  little  enlarged  and  distorted.  He  said, 
"  Human  nature  will  be  all  right  if  you  will  only  let 
it ; "  and  this  is  one  of  the  schemes  for  letting  it  unfold 
its  inherent  purity  and  loveliness. 

Let  us  now  turn  to  the  other  scheme,  —  anti-commu- 
nistic socialism.  The  former  painted  its  own  portrait 
amid  the  horrors  that  befell  Paris  in  1871.  The  latter 
is  doing  the  same  thing  under  the  guidance  of  the 
positive  philosophy  of  Comte,  only  with  more  sober  and 
subdued  colors.  According  to  this,  Communism  pure 
and  simple  is  an  exploded  heresy,  and  its  views  about 
property,  the  individual,  and  the  state,  radically  wrong. 
Frenchmen  may  speak  of  it  in  this  way,  because  they 
had  a  taste  of  it  which  they  will  not  be  likely  to  forget. 
But  as  matter  of  fact,  heresy  though  it  be,  it  certainly 
is  not  an  exploded  one.  Italy,  Germany,  Russia,  would 
rejoice  to-day  to  be  assured  that  it  is  so.     Even  this 


The  Christian  Ministrif  at  the  Bar  of  Criticism.     67 

country  would  be  glad  to  know  that  it  has  run  its  career. 
A  system  which  counts  its  adherents  by  the  hundreds 
of  thousands,  and  prints  a  score  of  widely  circulated 
journals  in  half  a  dozen  languages,  and  employs  a  small 
army  of  emissaries  to  stir  up  strife  and  bitterness  among 
the  laboring  classes,  can  hardly  be  said  to  be  obsolete. 
The  type  of  socialism  which  assumes  to  have  supplanted 
it  is  undoubtedly  far  less  radical  and  revolutionary  in 
its  attitude  toward  society  and  the  state,  but  scarcely 
less  so  in  its  attitude  toward  Christianity  and  the  rem- 
edies which  Christianity  offers  for  the  ills  of  mankind. 
It  is  essentially  nothing  more  than  the  current  material- 
ism of  the  time,  embodied  in  a  scheme  of  social  reform. 
It  exalts  the  individual,  magnifies  his  rights,  respects 
private  property,  narrows  rather  than  enlarges  the 
sphere  of  state-power,  relies  but  little  on  legislation  as 
an  instrument  of  amelioration,  and  a  great  deal  upon 
public  opinion,  glorifies  the  sentiment  of  human  brother- 
hood, and  depends  for  what  is  best  in  the  future  upon 
the  increasing  power  of  love  and  benevolence  between 
man  and  man.  If  this  be  true,  it  might  be  thought, 
that,  having  adopted  practically  the  great  central  thesis 
of  Christianity,  it  would  have  some  word  of  reverence 
and  good-will  for  the  system  from  which  it  has  borrowed 
all  in  itself  that  challenges  sympathy  or  respect.  But 
on  the  contrary,  it  is,  if  possible,  more  bitterly  hostile  to 
Christianity  than  the  most  bald  and  blatant  Communism. 
It  contents  itself  with  the  morality  of  Christianity,  while 
boldly  rejecting  all  the  fundamental  principles  on  which 
that  morality  is  grounded.  It  uses  the  sentiment  of 
religion,  but  spurns  religion  itself.     It  declares  theology 


68     The  Christian  Ministry  at  the  Bar  of  Criticism. 

to  be  an  impossible  science  in  the  future,  and  a  mel- 
ancholy failure  in  the  past.  The  Church  has  exhausted 
its  ethical  life  in  two  weak  and  impertinent  messages 
to  man,  —  alms-giving  to  the  rich,  and  resignation  to 
the  poor.  In  a  single  sentence  it  outlines  its  view  of  the 
final  era:  "Labor  shall  take  the  place  of  war,  science 
of  theology,  and  humanity  of  God." 

Now,  to  the  full  extent  that  these  and  similar  notions, 
however  modified  or  held  in  reserve,  enter  into  the  so- 
called  reform  movements  of  the  age,  or  inspire  the 
masses  in  their  disorderly,  ever-shifting  schemes  of  social 
amelioration,  it  is  impossible  for  the  Clergy  to  do  other- 
wise than  oppose  them,  and,  by  opposing,  to  incur 
sneering  or  angry  imputations  of  coldness  and  indiff'er- 
ence  toward  what  some  have  come  to  regard  as  the 
noblest  outcome  of  the  modern  spirit.  Their  answer  to 
such  allegations  can  be  stated  in  few  words.  The  truth 
of  it  must  be  left  to  time  to  determine. 

Injustice,  disorder,  social  inequality,  and  many  of  the 
evils  arising  from  them,  have  such  a  hold  on  this  visible 
order  of  things,  as  to  forbid  our  treating  them  as  acci- 
dents, or  as  any  thing  else  than  part  and  parcel  of  this 
world,  and  therefore  to  last  as  long  as  the  world  itself 
lasts.  If  they  are  so,  then  they  cannot  be  removed  by 
schemes  devised  in  the  same  spirit  in  which  reforms 
in  finance,  or  commerce,  or  jurisprudence,  or  police  are 
devised :  we  must  drop  the  over-sanguine  view,  for  a 
sober  and  matter-of-fact  one,  and,  by  doing  so,  renounce 
delusive  futures  and  imaginary  probabilities.  Men's 
expectations  must  be  measured  by  their  experience,  not 
by  their  desires ;  and  they  must  be  taught  to  be  just 


The  Christian  Ministry  at  the  Bar  of  Criticism.     69 

before  they  are  generous,  to  be  wise  before  they  are 
prophetic.  The  Gospel  condemns  sentimentalism,  and 
rebukes  a  luxurious  and  carnal  faith  that  spends  its 
strength  in  fondling  and  caressing  human  nature ;  and 
they  who  speak  for  the  Gospel  are  false  to  their  office 
and  their  trust  if  they  fear  or  fail  to  say  so.  The  bad 
tree  brings  forth  bad  fruit.  It  is  no  use  to  try  to  make 
the  fruit  better  until  the  tree  itself  has  been  purged  of 
its  vicious  sap.  Personal  character  is  the  crown  of  life, 
the  supreme  fruitage  of  all  that  man  is  and  does.  It  is 
the  delusion  of  the  time,  that  character  is  the  product  of 
social  conditions.  It  is  so  in  part ;  but  there  is  another 
and  higher  part  which  is  the  product  of  man  himself. 
Equ  ilize  absolutely  all  external  conditions,  but  this  will 
not  equalize  character.  Good  characters  will  still 
emerge  from  bad  conditions,  and  bad  characters  from 
good  ones.  Poverty,  it  is  said,  is  a  great  temptation  to 
dishonesty.  Sometimes  it  is,  but  not  as  a  rule ;  for, 
to  say  the  least,  the  rich  steal,  in  one  way  or  another, 
quite  as  often  as  the  poor.  It  is  the  old  question  of  will 
on  the  one  side,  and  circumstances  on  the  other.  And, 
in  every  generation,  the  instinct,  if  not  the  reasoning 
of  mankind,  has  settled  it  in  favor  of  the  former ;  so 
settled  it,  that  no  man  has  been  accounted  truly  strong 
and  great  whose  personality  has  not  triumphed  over 
adverse  conditions. 

Again,  as  part  of  the  reply  of  the  Clergy  to  their 
accusers,  it  may  be  laid  down  as  a  fact  approved  by 
experience,  and  not  disproved  by  any  philosophy  of 
life,  —  far  less  by  the  latest  one,  called  positive  because 
claiming  to   deal  only  with  facts,  —  that   inequality  of 


70     The  Christian  Ministry  at  the  Bar  of  Criticism. 

condition,  the  scape-goat  on  which  the  most  popular 
schemes  of  reform  would  lay  the  sin  and  sorrow  of  the 
time,  is  only  in  part  avoidable,  only  in  part  dq>lorable. 
It  has  its  advantages,  as  well  as  its  evils.  It  is  wedged 
into  the  social  framework  by  the  power  that  made  that 
framework.  It  is  as  much  a  feature  of  society,  as  eyes 
and  ears,  arms  and  legs,  are  organic  parts  of  the  body. 
Some  of  it  results  from  inequality  of  natural  endow- 
ment ;  some  of  it  from  inevitable  casualties,  and  is, 
therefore.  Providential ;  some  of  it  is  the  sad  heritage 
handed  on  by  a  vicious,  idle,  diseased  parentage.  Some 
of  it,  again,  is  produced  by  industrial,  commercial,  mon- 
etary fluctuations;  and  quite  as  much,  if  not  more,  by 
the  vices,  extravagances,  and  caprices  of  men  themselves. 
Exactly  how  much  is  curable,  and  exactly  how  much 
must  be  accepted  and  endured  as  being  incurable,  it  is 
impossible  to  tell.  But  so  much  of  it  as  is  curable, 
Christianity,  unless  faithlessly  represented,  is  always 
ready  to  help  cure.  So  much  of  it  as  the  Gospel 
declares  to  be  needless  and  oppressive,  the  Clergy  are 
bound  to  do  what  they  can  to  remove.  And  it  is  my 
belief,  that,  as  an  Order,  they  are  loyal  to  this  obligation  ; 
and  that  this  loyalty  is  proved  by  what  they  preach,  and 
by  what  they  do,  in  vast  numbers  of  individual  cases,  to 
lift  up  the  fallen,  to  encourage  the  hopeless,  to  relieve 
the  distressed.  If  they  fail  to  walk  arm-in-arm  with  so- 
called  reformers,  or  decline  to  carry  the  banners  of  social 
doctrinaires,  or  to  play  the  part  of  advocates  and  orators 
on  the  platform  in  behalf  of  schemes  that  propose  to 
clean  only  the  outside  of  the  platter,  to  wash  bodies 
without  washing  the  filthy  souls  which  they  cover,  or 


The  Christian  Ministry  at  the  Bar  of  Criticism.     71 

to  strike  down  all  inequalities  of  life  as  so  many  mortal 
enemies  to  the  well-being  of  man,  or  to  go  to  the  very 
verge  of  a  violation  of  natural  instinct  and  natural  law 
in  abolishing  differences  of  function,  right,  privilege, 
education,  service,  between  the  sexes,  —  if  the  Clergy  do 
this,  it  is  because  they  refuse  to  trifle  with  the  sacred- 
ness  of  their  commission,  with  the  dignity  of  God's 
truth,  with  the  honor  and  consistency  of  the  Church  of 
Christ,  and  with  the  rational  hopes  and  aspirations  of 
the  souls  given  into  their  charge. 

If  now  we  survey  the  whole  field  of  fact,  suggestion, 
and  inference,  over  which  we  have  travelled ;  if  we  make 
due  allowance  for  what  must  be  admitted,  and  for  what 
may  be  doubted  or  denied,  —  we  are  brought,  I  think, 
substantially  to  this  conclusion:  viz., — 

(1)  That  in  some  relations  to  modern  life,  and  in 
some  of  the  traditional  and  ordinary  means  and  modes 
of  work,  the  influence  of  the  Christian  Ministry  has 
declined ; 

(2)  That  in  others  it  has  been  seriously  hindered  or 
sadly  peiTerted ; 

(3)  That  in  none  has  it  been  of  such  range  and  power 
as  to  fill  out  the  ideal  of  the  Sacred  Office,  whether  we 
have  regard  to  the  very  definite  one  contained  in  the 
Holy  Scriptures,  or  the  less  lofty  and  severe  and  more 
general  one  floating  in  the  traditions  and  hopes  of  the 
people  of  God. 

But,  though  the  conclusion  thus  broadly  outlined  be 
granted,  it  will  be  seen,  after  due  reflection,  that  it  does 
not  charge  the  Ministry  of  the  present  generation  with 
any  unusual  betrayal  of  trust,  or  unusual  feebleness  in 


72     The  Christian  Ministry  at  the  Bar  of  Criticism. 

the  exercise  of  its  gifts :  but  simply  with  that  measure  of 
fault  which  commonly  attaches  to  human  agency  when 
wielding  Divine  powers,  —  the  fault  of  yielding  too 
easily  to  adverse  forces,  and  of  failing  to  seize  at  the 
critical  hour  great  opportunities  for  service  to  the  King- 
dom of  Christ ;  the  fault  of  not  studying  and  under- 
standing the  signs  of  the  times,  so  as  wisely  and 
promptly  to  adapt  what  is  mutable  in  the  polity,  wor- 
ship, and  practical  methods  of  the  Church,  to  the  ever- 
changing  conditions  of  individual  and  social  life ;  and, 
finally,  the  fault  of  coming  short  of  the  highest  attain- 
ments in  Christian  knowledge  and  the  noblest  motives 
of  Christian  duty.^ 

1  "It  is  curious  to  see  how  complaints  have  been  made,  in  all  ages, 
of  remissness  in  supporting  the  faith,  of  negligence  in  the  cure  of  souls, 
of  degeneracy  from  primitive  times.  S.  Hildebert,  in  addressing  the 
Clergy  of  Angers  or  Tours;  S.  Fulbert,  in  his  Diocesan  Synods  of  Chartres; 
S.  Norbert,  preaching  before  the  Priests  of  Magdeburg  ;  S.  Anselm,  in 
Normandy  and  at  Canterbury ;  S.  Arnoule  at  Soissons  ;  S.  Frederick  at 
Utrecht, — all  bear  witness  to  the  same  thing." — Rev.  J.'M.  Neale: 
Mediaeval  Preachers,  Introduction,  p.  74. 


LECTURE  II. 

THE  CAUSES  THAT  HAVE  HINDERED  OR  IMPAIRED  THE 
INFLUENCE  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY. 

Having  set  forth,  in  the  preceding  Lecture,  the  pres- 
ent status  of  the  Priesthood,  as  estimated  by  the  current 
criticism  of  the  day,  I  now  proceed  to  consider  the  causes 
that  have  hindered  or  impaired  its  influence  in  our  time. 
Some  of  these  causes  have  ah*eady  been  alluded  to  when 
examining  the  faults  imputed  to  the  Priesthood  by  the 
popular  judgment.  I  begin  now  with  that  which  lies 
deepest,  and  reaches  farthest.  Nothing  is  so  much 
opposed  by  what  passes  for  "  the  modern  spirit "  as 
that  one  thing  which  the  Priesthood  chiefly  represents, 
—  Christianity  as  a  supernatural  force  working  through 
the  Church  continuously  in  histoiy.^     The  ground  as- 

1  The  loose,  unintelligent  way  in  which  the  term  *'  supernatural  "  has 
been  used  has  helped  to  give  currency  to  not  a  few  of  the  errors  of  modern 
popular  infidelity.  It  has  a  definite  sense,  and  when  employed  by  the 
teachers  and  apologists  of  Christianity  should  be  used  in  that  sense.  It 
is,  however,  often  associated  with  the  ghostly  and  the  marvellous;  with 
apparitions  and  wonders  belonging  to  the  category  of  vulgar  superstitions, 
or  to  the  jugglery  and  legerdemain  of  necromancy  and  spiritualism ;  or 
with  actions  of  divine  agents  which  could  not  be  explained,  or  reduced 
to  any  system.  The  scepticism  of  our  time  has  traded  largely  on  the 
misleading,  and  to  thoughtful  minds  offensive,  use  of  the  word. 

Briefly,  the  supernatural,  whether  used  religiously  or  philosophically, 
and  understood  in  the  broadest  sense,  expresses  any  force  which  acts  on 


74  Inftuence  of  the  Christian  Ministry. 

sumed  is  so  sweeping  and  radical,  that  all  minor  ques- 
tions affecting  special  claims  and  prerogatives  of  the 
Priesthood  drop  out  of  sight.     The  enmity  that  assails 

the  chain  of  cause  and  effect  in  nature  from  without  the  chain,  whether  it 
be  the  will  of  man,  or  angel,  or  God.  Christian  supematuralism  signifies 
that  God  is  acting  from  without  on  the  lines  of  cause  and  effect  in  our 
fallen  world,  and  in  our  disordered  humanity,  to  produce  what,  by  no 
mere  laws  of  nature,  will  ever  come  to  pass:  i.e.,  "  as  a  power  of  regen- 
eration and  new  creation,  working  to  r^air  the  hurt  which  the  laws  of 
nature,  by  their  penal  action,  would  otherwise  perpetuate." 

To  hear  some  of  our  wise  men  (as  the  world  accounts  wisdom)  talk, 
one  would  be  forced  to  regard  Christianity  as  not  merely  a  superfluity, 
but  an  impertinence  in  the  universe  of  souls;  and  this  simply  because  it 
comes  to  quicken  and  to  purify  humanity  by  powers  which  it  were  indeed 
an  impertinence  to  look  for  in  nature.  When  shall  we  hare  a  science  of 
our  world  large  enough  to  make  room  for  the  real  system  of  God,  in  its 
two  grand  divisions  of  the  natural  and  the  supernatural,  — the  empire  of 
necessary  law,  and  the  empire  of  will  and  liberty,  —  acting  and  re-acting 
one  upon  the  other  under  His  direction,  just  as  easily  and  certainly  as  one 
property  of  matter  acts  upon  another  ?  If  ever  there  be  such  a  science, 
it  will  allow  for,  if  it  does  not  actively  teach,  two  methods  of  arriving  at 
truth,  — the  one  assuring  the  understanding  by  demonstrative  certainty; 
the  other,  the  method  of  faith,  which  verifies  the  higher  truths  of  reli- 
gion by  the  heart,  and  not  by  the  notions  of  the  head.  Such  a  science, 
moreover,  will  recognize  the  great  underlying  fact  which  Christianity  pre- 
supposes, and,  as  it  were,  repeats  in  every  exercise  of  its  redemptive 
power;  viz.,  that  as  Christ  the  Lord  "is  before  all  things,  and  in  Him  all 
things  consist,"  or  stand  together,  so  His  Mediatorial  work  was  "not  an 
afterthought,  but  a  forethought  of  God,"  —  a  plan  formed  anterior  "to 
the  foundation  of  the  world."  As  a  profound  thinker  has  remarked  with 
singular  clearness  and  force,  — 

"  Instead  of  coming  into  the  world,  as  being  no  part  of  the  system,  or 
to  interrupt  and  violate  the  system  of  things,  they  all  consist,  come  to- 
gether into  system,  in  Christ,  as  the  centre  of  unity  and  the  head  of  the 
universal  plan.  The  world  was  made  to  include  Christianity ;  under  that, 
becomes  a  proper  and  complete  frame  of  order;  to  that,  crystallizes  in 
all  its  appointments,  events,  and  experiences;  in  that,  has  the  design,  or 
final  cause,  revealed,  by  which  all  its  distributions,  laws,  and  historic 
changes  are  determined  and  systematized." 


Influence  of  the  Christian  Ministry,  75 

the  whole  makes  itself  felt  in  every  part.  Men  will  be 
influenced  by  the  Priesthood  only  as  they  accept  its 
authority  to  teach  and  guide,  and  are  convinced  of  the 
reality  of  its  gifts  and  powers.  To  those  who  reject  its 
claims,  it  is  not  merely  an  idle,  or  a  useless,  or  a  dead 
function,  but  an  imposture.  It  is  either  God's  ordinance 
or  man's  device.  There  is  no  middle  ground  of  partial 
good  and  partial  evil.  Now,  the  Christian  Priesthood 
plants  itself  in  all  essential  regards  absolutely  within  the 
domain  of  the  supernatural.  It  sets  forth  a  supernat- 
ural Head  and  a  supernatural  Kingdom.  It  announces 
supernatural  gifts  and  sanctions.  It  offers  a  supernatural 
life  to  the  individual,  and  affirms  a  supernatural  life  in 
the  Church.  It  works  upon  nature,  but  with  motives, 
instruments,  and  results  that  transcend  nature.  Cer- 
tainly, such  a  power  will  tell  upon  men  only  as  they 
trust  its  authority  and  capacity  to  do  what  it  professes. 

Now,  as  matter  of  fact,  it  is  largely  hindered  and 
often  nullified  because  it  demands,  from  those  on  whom 
it  works,  a  faith  which  exists  only  partially  in  some 
cases,  and  in  many  others  not  at  all.  There  is  an  open 
unbelief,  that  simply  shuts  its  ears,  and  refuses  to  hear ; 
and  there  is  a  secret  distrust,  that,  in  the  minds  that 
cherish  it,  paralyzes  the  word  and  work  of  the  Priest- 
hood. This  is  at  once  the  most  and  the  least  reli- 
gious of  generations.  It  is  the  most  so  if  judged  by  its 
interest  in  the  discussion  of  religious  questions,  and  the 
least  so  if  judged  by  its  actual  reception  of  the  positive 
teachings  of  religion.  What  faith  there  is,  outside  the 
circle  of  earnest  believers,  exists  in  all  possible  stages 
of  decay.     There  is  the  suspense  of  faith,  the  eclipse  of 


76  Influence  of  the  Christian  Ministry. 

faith,  the  atrophy  of  faith.  Starting  with  the  faith  that 
hangs  dreamily  on  the  edges  of  Christianity,  too  timid  to 
let  go,  and  yet  too  weak  to  hold  fast,  we  have  all  varie- 
ties and  stages  of  repudiation  of  the  supernatural,  down 
to  that  which  accepts  the  final  thesis  of  the  pagan  ration- 
alism of  the  Greek  Sophists.^  This  temper  of  the  time 
envelops  us  like  an  atmosphere.  If  we  take  up  the 
public  journals,  it  confronts  us  there  in  current  notices 
of  men  and  things,  in  criticisms  of  books  and  periodicals, 
in  discussions  of  political  and  social  questions,  in  anti- 
Christian  views  of  marriage  and  divorce,  and  conse- 
quently of  crimes  against  the  purity  of  domestic  life  and 

^  Justin  Martyr  says  of  the  Sophists  of  his  time,  •'  They  seek  to  con- 
vince us  that  the  Divinity  extends  his  care  to  the  great  whole,  and  to 
the  several  kinds,  but  not  to  me  or  to  you,  not  to  men  as  individuals. 
Hence  it  is  useless  to  pray  to  him,  for  every  thing  occurs  according  to  the 
unchangeable  law  of  an  endless  cycle."  (Neandek,  vol.  i.  p.  9)  There 
could  not  be  a  better  statement  of  the  fundamental  idea  of  that  numer- 
ous class  of  minds  to-day  who  flavor  their  speech  with  some  of  the  famil- 
iar terras  of  a  supernatural  faith,  and  yet  deny  in  detail  every  principle 
of  such  a  faith.  They  tell  us  of  a  religion  which  is  to  prove  the  solvent 
and  absorbent  of  all  other  religions,  —  a  religion  universal,  philosophic, 
scientific,  content  to  dwell  and  to  do  its  work  within  the  domain  of 
nature;  a  religion  without  miracle,  or  incarnation,  or  resurrection,  or  new 
birth,  or  new  creation,  or  new  heavens  and  new  earth,  but  with  certain 
sublime  sentiments  of  love,  brotherhood,  and  worship;  reciting  the  Orphic 
hymns,  the  Sibylline  verses,  and  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  with  equal 
veneration ;  abandoning  prayer,  except  as  a  passionate  utterance  of  the 
soul  toward  the  unknown  and  unknowable,  or  as  a  means  of  keeping 
before  the  soul  a  grand  ideal,  itself  but  a  product  and  an  idol  of  the  soul; 
recognizing  no  Providence  that  knows  any  thing  of  individuals,  or  cares 
for  them  save  as  it  cares  for  all  being  in  its  totality  and  through 
changeless  laws  which  grind  on  as  so  many  soulless  wheels  of  a  soulless 
machine.  Justin  Martyr  met  the  same  sort  of  thinking  in  his  day. 
The  type  has  not  changed.  The  religion  of  the  pagan  Sophists  is  the 
religion  of  the  Huxleys  and  Tyndalls  of  to-day. 


Influence  of  the  Christian  Ministry.  77 

the  sacredness  of  home  sympathies  and  obligations.  But 
above  all  does  it  confront  us  in  their  mode  of  handling 
whatever  relates  to  the  Faith,  Order,  and  Worship  of  the 
Church ;  to  the  mysteries  and  miracles  of  Religion ;  to 
the  Christian  doctrine  of  Prayer,  of  Divine  Providence, 
of  the  retribution  of  sin,  and  of  the  Revelation  of  God's 
will.  And  then,  if  we  examine  the  various  schools  of 
fiction  for  the  people,  or  the  sensuous  poetry  intended 
for  the  delectation  of  the  select  few,  or  many  of  the 
widely  ciixulated  manuals  of  the  sciences  of  mind  and 
matter,  sadly  abundant  evidence  will  be  found  of  the 
pervading  influence  of  this  tone  of  thought.  It  is  not 
so  noticeable  in  the  older  men  and  women  of  the  time, 
as  in  the  young  of  both  sexes,  —  a  fact  which  plainly 
discovers  the  drift  of  the  reigning  systems  of  education. 
Now,  in  more  ways  than  I  can  stop  to  mention,  this 
state  of  feeling,  this  style  of  culture,  this  bias  of  char- 
acter, are  hostile,  habitually  and  often  bitterly  so,  to  the  , 
work  of  the  Ministry. 

But,  disastrous  to  the  normal  influence  of  the  Ministry 
as  this  may  have  been,  it  has  hardly  been  more  so  than 
certain  unscriptural  and  unchurchly  notions  widely  prev- 
alent among  large  bodies  of  Chi-istian  believers.  I  shall 
not  attempt  to  trace  the  origin  and  history  of  these  no- 
tions, nor  to  point  out  their  logical  connection  with  the 
systems  of  religious  life  and  thought  with  which  they 
are  almost  universally  associated.  It  is  enough,  perhaps, 
to  say  that  they  are  part  of  the  unfortunate  legacy  from 
sixteenth-century  extremes,  and  have  their  common 
root  in  a  theory  of  Christianity  which  makes  much  of 
it  as  a  force,  and  little  of  it  as  an  institution ;  which 


78  Influence  of  the  Christian  Ministry. 

magnifies  the  life  of  the  individual,  at  the  expense  of  the 
life  of  the  Body ;  which,  in  cases  of  doubt,  esteems  the 
Terdict  of  each  member  of  the  Body  as  of  equal,  if  not 
superior,  value  to  the  verdict  of  the  whole  Body ;  and 
which,  in  effect,  makes  each  member,  in  the  last  resort, 
practically  independent,  not  merely  of  the  governing 
authority,  but,  what  is  much  more  serious,  of  the  life- 
giving  and  life-feeding  offices  of  the  Body.  Under  this 
theory,  there  is  and  there  can  be  no  proper  Church  life. 
What  seems  such  is  only  the  nerveless  and  diluted  prod- 
uct of  modes  of  Christian  association,  which,  lacking  all 
continuous,  corporate,  historical  life,  fluctuate  with  the 
circumstances  of  each  generation.  It  is  the  inevitable 
result  of  this  view,  to  cleave  Christianity  in  twain,  and 
then  to  array  the  parts  which  are  alike  divine  in  destruc- 
tive antagonism.  Now,  there  have  been  some  theories 
of  religion  which  have  been  saved  from  their  final  con- 
sequences, held  midway  in  their  course  of  development, 
by  moral  or  intellectual  instincts  which  work  on  in  a 
regio;i  too  deep  to  be  reached  by  the  subtleties  of  schools, 
or  the  narrownesses  and  anarchies  of  sects,  or  the  vision- 
ary guesses  of  speculative  philosophy.  Such  has  not  been 
true  of  this  theory.  The  liberties  of  modern  life  have 
given  it  full  scope,  while  special  causes  have  been  at 
work  to  stimulate  its  growth,  and  tempt  it  to  push  on 
to  the  last  consequences  of  its  principles.  Of  all  the 
Christian  Bodies  in  which  this  theory  has  prevailed, 
there  is  not  one,  whatever  may  be  its  piety  and  zeal, 
which  does  not  exhibit  evident  symptoms  of  disintegra- 
tion. It  is  not,  however,  effects  in  this  direction  that 
it  falls  within  my  purpose  to  notice ;  but,  rather,  those 


Influence  of  the  Christian  Ministry.  79 

which  detract  from  the  dignity,  assail  the  authority,  and 
undermine  the  influence,  of  the  Priesthood. 

There  are  three  characteristic  fruits  of  the  general 
view  to  which  I  have  alluded.  They  are  separable  in 
thought,  but  ordinarily  go  together  in  practice.  The 
mind  that  holds  one  will  be  apt  to  hold  all.  Theologi- 
cally considered,  they  are  only  different  phases  of  the 
same  fundamental  idea. 

1.  It  is  held,  that,  as  Christianity  saves  the  race  by 
saving  the  individuals  of  which  the  race  is  composed, 
therefore  its  virtue  is  chiefly  exhibited  in  a  series  of 
individual  redemptions ;  the  completeness  of  each  being 
promoted  by  contact  with  the  ministrations  of  the 
Church,  though  not  necessarily  prevented  or  utterly 
defeated  by  the  absence  of  such  ministrations.  Church- 
membership  is  expedient,  not  essential.  The  Chiu-ch 
has  nothing  to  offer  the  soul,  which  the  soul  may  not 
secure  in  some  other  Way.  The  Sacraments  are  wit- 
nesses and  seals  of  something  already  done,  or  to  be 
done  in  the  future.  Baptism  certifies  the  pious  resolu- 
tion, publishes  and  records  the  solemn  pledge  of  the  in- 
dividual ;  but  of  itself  and  in  itself  as  Christ's  ordinance 
conveys  no  positive  gift  or  blessing  from  Him.  The 
Sacrament  of  His  Body  and  Blood  is  simply  a  memorial 
which  appeals  through  imagination  and  memory,  and 
the  moral  sensibilities,  to  the  higher  spiritual  affections. 
It  is  neither  the  channel  through  which  life-giving  grace 
flows  into  the  soul  from  without,  nor  the  pledge  to  as- 
sure the  soul  of  any  actual  indwelling  presence  of  its 
Lord.  Neither  of  these  two  Sacraments,  nor  any  nor 
all  means  of  grace,  do  any  thing  which  faith  and  repent- 
ance could  not  do  without  them. 


80  Injltience  of  the  Christian  Ministry. 

2.  But  as  a  corollary  from  this,  the  notion  prevails 
widely  in  the  popular  religion  of  our  time,  that  the  soul 
has  no  wants  which  may  not  be  satisfied  by  its  immedi- 
ate personal  communion  with  God ;  consequently,  that 
the  Ministry  in  no  way,  except  figuratively,  mediates  or 
stands  officially  between  God  and  the  soul;  that  all 
ministerial  acts  are  merely  supplementary  to  what  each 
soul  can  do  for  itself,  and  therefore  are  to  be  regarded 
as  a  convenience,  a  help,  a  means  of  edification,  but  in 
no  respect  essential  to  the  soul's  health  and  salvation. 
Under  this  view,  no  one  need  be  troubled  about  ques- 
tions as  to  what  constitutes  valid  Sacraments,  or  valid 
ministrations  of  any  kind.  They  are  among  the  acci- 
dents of  a  life  which  may  be  benefited  by,  but  is  not 
dependent  on  them.^ 

3.  But  all  who  accept  this  definition,  or  one  sub- 
stantially like  it,  of  the  soul's  relation  to  Christ  and  His 
Church,  fall  inevitably  into  low  views  as  to  the  source 
and  nature  of  the  authority  of  the  Sacred  Office  of  the 
Priesthood.  They  are  quite  consistent  in  treating  as  of 
secondary  importance,  or  with  absolute  indifference,  the 
origin  of  its  commission,  or  the  means  of  transmitting 
it  from  age  to  age.     Very  naturally  they  entertain  no 

1  "  When  a  man  has  risen  from  his  lower  nature,  so  that  he  sees  God 
face  to  face ;  when,  by  invisible  truths,  he  learns  to  love  God  and  man, 
—  it  makes  no  difference  to  him  whether  he  observes  this  and  that  custom 
or  ordinance,  or  not.  He  is  not  affected  by  baptism  one  way  or  the  other. 
He  may  take  it,  or  he  may  neglect  it.  He  may  partake  of  the  ordinance  of 
the  Lord's  Supper,  or  he  may  go  without  it.  .  .  .  In  regard  to  all  outside 
things  pertaining  to  religion,  and  to  churches,  and  to  the  whole  economy 
of  ordinances  and  doctrines,  you  may  have  them  if  you  can  make  any  thing 
out  of  them,  and  if  you  do  not  want  them  you  may  go  without  them."  — 
Plymouth  Pulpit,  sermon,  "The  Liberty  of  the  Gospel,"  vol.  vi.  No.  2. 


Influence  of  the  Christian  Ministry/.  81 

higher  idea  of  Ordination  than  as  a  formal  recognition 
by  the  people  or  by  their  Ministers  of  a  call  already 
complete  in  its  essentials,  and  of  certain  personal  gifts 
and  acquirements  which  qualify  for  the  exercise  of  the 
Holy  Office.  To  such  minds,  it  savors  of —  if  it  is  not 
really  —  a  superstitious  fiction,  to  speak  of  Ordination 
as  Christ's  own  act,  performed  through  His  accredited 
deputies,  and  conveying  the  gift  of  the  Holy  Ghost  with 
all  its  heavenly  retinue  of  priestly,  prophetic,  and  kingly 
graces,  —  the  gift  without  which  no  man,  whatever  his 
learning,  or  genius,  or  piety,  or  fervor,  may  "  take  this 
honor  unto  himself."  If  the  Christian  Ministry  has 
witnessed  a  decline  of  late  years  in  its  official  influence 
and  in  popular  regard ;  if  it  has,  as  some  contend,  suf- 
fered in  the  common  judgment  of  the  people  even  unto 
occasional  degradation  and  contempt,  —  we  need  not  go 
beyond  such  opinions  and  such  teachings  for  the  cause 
which  has  produced  results  so  lamentable  to  religion, 
and  so  disastrous  to  the  work  of  those  who,  as  an  Apostle 
declares,  are  to  be  so  accounted  "  as  the  Ministers  of 
Christ,  and  stewards  of  the  mysteries  of  God." 

Encompassed  as  we  are,  in  these  times,  by  errors  so 
hurtful  to  the  moral  sway  of  the  Priesthood,  it  is  well  that 
we  not  only  recall,  but  that  we  be  doubly  persuaded  of 
the  fact,  that  the  primitive  and  traditional  teaching  of  the 
Church,  even  in  its  most  positive  form,  goes  no  farther 
than  is  necessary  to  protect  from  decay  the  powers  of  the 
Holy  Office,  and  to  save  from  general  disesteem  its  or- 
dinary functions.  That  teaching,  sharply  cut  in  its  out- 
line and  firmly  grasped  in  its  substance,  is  ahke  needful  to 
the  people  of  God  and  to  the  Clergy  themselves.     As  for 


82  Influence  of  the  Christian  Ministry. 

the  people,  it  tells  them  these  plain  and  salutary  truths. 
"  What  can  be  more  evident  than  that  we  cannot  be 
obliged  in  conscience  to  own  any  for  our  spiritual  gov- 
ernors, and  pay  them  suitable  regards  of  obedience  and 
submission,  if  they  have  not  our  Lord's  commission  to 
govern  us  \  Whosoever  pretends  to  act  as  a  magistrate 
in  any  temporal  kingdom,  without  the  king's  commission, 
is  reckoned  a  usurper.  If  the  standing  of  all  other  so- 
cieties requires  that  subordinate  governors  should  have 
authentic  commissions  from  the  supreme  head,  how  much 
more  must  the  standing  of  the  Church  require  if? 
Church  governors  are  God's  representatives  ;  they  preach 
in  His  name ;  they  make  covenants,  and  append  seals  to 
them,  in  His  name ;  in  His  name  they  receive  into  and 
thrust  out  of  the  Communion  of  His  Church.  In  a  word, 
in  His  name  they  must  do  every  thing,  if  they  would  do 
it  warrantably.  But  how  can  they  do  any  thing  in  His 
name?  how  can  they  represent  him  any  manner  of 
way  ?  how  can  they  in  any  sense  be  called  His  ambas- 
sadors. His  proxies.  His  vicegerents,  —  without  His  com- 
mission?"^ But,  if  this  commission  be  so  necessary, 
does  it  not  seem  equally  so  that  there  should  be  in  the 
Church  some  prescribed  and  authorized  method  for  trans- 
mitting it  from  age  to  age  %  "  There  is  not  in  the  world 
a  greater  presumption  than  that  any  should  think  to 
convey  a  gift  of  God,  unless  by  God  and  in  God's  way 
he  be  appointed  to  do  it."  ^ 

1  Bishop  Sage's  Reasonableness  of  a  Toleration  of  the  Episcopate, 
p.  208. 

2  Bishop  Taylor's  Ductor  Dubitantium,  b.  iii.  ch.  iv.,  Rule  12. 

It  might  be  inferred  by  reason  alone,  that  such  an  institution  as  that 
of  rulers  and  ministers,  intrusted  with  the  gifts  of  grace,  would  necessarily 


Influence  of  the  Christian  Ministry.  83 

Let  the  people  be  settled  and  grounded  in  this  prin- 
ciple, and  there  will  never  be  a  question  among  them 
who  are  the  parties  empowered  to  decide  on  doctrine,  to 
administer  discipline,  and  to  send  forth  laborers  into  the 
vineyard. 

To  this  principle  of  Catholic  and  Apostolic  order  there 
is  only  this  one  alternative,  which  has  its  sad  and  im- 
pressive illustrations  on  all  sides  of  us. 

"  If  the  existence  of  a  permanent  ministerial  succession 
down  from  the  mission  of  our  Lord  be  denied,  then  there 
can  be  but  the  mission  of  man ;  and  that  mission  can 
ultimately  be  nothing  else  than  the  fact  of  a  number  of 
persons  agreeing  to  accept  the  ministiy  of  one  who  con- 
ceives that  he  has  had  an  inward  call  to  it.  They  may 
ordain,  they  may  institute,  they  may  regulate  and  organ- 
ize a  well-ordered,  well-officered  body,  a  model  of  com- 
pact government;  yet  all  is  the  mere  work  of  man,  the 

imply  a  succession  unless  the  appointment  were  always  to  be  miraculous. 
"  We  can  conceive  no  other  method  by  human  agency  possible  without 
being  exposed  to  all  the  excesses  of  imposture  and  licentiousness.  Such 
is  the  nature  of  the  Christian  Priesthood,  that  it  can  only  be  continued  in 
that  method  which  God  has  appointed  for  its  continuance.  This  con- 
sideration is  of  great  importance,  because  the  Priesthood  is  in  its  nature 
9.  positive  institution,  that  is,  one  which  is  of  no  significancy  but  as  it  is 
of  divine  appointment^  and  can  no  otherwise  be  continued  except  as  Grod 
has  appointed.  Apostolical  practice,  therefore,  under  this  view,  shows  us 
what  is  the  order  or  method  that  is  appointed;  but  it  is  the  nature  of  the 
Priesthood  that  assures  such  order  or  method  ia  unalterable." — Law's 
Reply  to  the  Bishop  of  Bangor. 

For,  says  Hooker,  "  if  the  reason  why  things  were  instituted  may  be 
known,  and  being  known  do  appear  manifestly  to  be  of  perpetual  neces- 
sity; then  are  those  things  also  perpetual,  unless  they  cease  to  be  effec- 
tual unto  that  purpose  for  which  they  were  at  first  instituted."  — 
Ecclesiastical  Polity,  b.  iii.  ch.  x. 


84  Influence  of  the  Christian  Ministry. 

creation  of  his  will,  the  platform  of  his  architectural 
ingenuity;  and  all  will  sooner  or  later  be  resolved  into 
its  original  elements  of  his  self-will."^ 

But  a  clear  perception  of  and  firm  hold  upon  this  prin- 
ciple are  as  needful  to  the  Clergy  as  to  the  laity.  On 
no  lower  ground  can  they  hope  to  maintain  permanently 
their  due  place  in  the  reverence  and  afi'ection  of  their 
flocks,  or  to  have  acknowledged  by  them  the  dignity  and 
necessity  of  their  vocation.  This  question  of  a  properly 
authenticated  commission  is  too  serious  and  too  prac- 
tical to  be  left  to  antiquarians  and  theorizers.  It  in- 
volves much  more  than  the  continuity  of  history  and 
the  truth  of  the  records  of  the  past,  —  even  the  estima- 
tion in  which  the  Priest  of  God  shall  hold  his  own  gifts 
and  prerogatives ;  the  temper  of  mind  with  which  he 
shall  habitually  contemplate  his  work,  and  confront  the 
trials  and  failures  which  will  attend  it.  It  is  only  saying 
what  experience  and  the  nature  of  the  case  amply  prove, 
to  affirm  that  no  Priest  is  likely  to  be  to  his  people,  or  to 
demand  from  them,  what  he  ought,  whose  call  and  mis- 
sion rest  upon  mere  sentiment  or  inward  conviction,  how- 
ever benevolent  and  sincere,  or  upon  a  sense  of  personal 
fitness,  or  upon  popular  choice.  To  be  and  to  do  what 
is  required  of  him,  to  rise  to  the  highest  grade  of  moral 
power  in  his  work,  to  feel  the  noblest  and  most  unfail- 
ing stimulus  to  exertion,  to  bring  strength  out  of  weak- 
ness, to  be  ready  for  self-abasement  and  yet  not  unwilling 
to  be  personally  prominent  in  all  duties  and  offices  of 
public  administration,  to  endure  hardness,  to  live  near 
the  source  of  true  consolation  and  courage  under  disap- 

1  Bishop  Hall's  Episcopacy  by  Divine  Right. 


Influence  of  the  Christian  Ministry.  85 

pointments  never  wanting  in  the  most  successful  career, 
to  combine  the  softness  and  meekness  of  the  saint  with 
the  aggressive  boldness  and  energy  of  the  Christian 
soldier,  —  to  do  all  this,  and  thus  to  fill  up  the  ideal 
of  the  Christian  Priest,  the  feet  of  Christ's  Ministers 
must  be  planted  firmly  on  the  rock  of  a  veritable  war- 
rant and  commission  from  God  provable  by  plain  historic 
testimony.  He  alone  is  sufficient  for  these  things,  whose 
life  is  animated  by  the  faith  that  the  man  whom  God 
prompts  and  palpably  commands,  he  also  will  enable.^ 

1  In  what  has  been  said  on  this  point,  there  is  no  room  for  the  contro- 
versy sometimes  evoked  by  the  mere  naming  of  the  doctrine  of  "  Apostolic 
succession."  The  truth  of  a  transmitted  commission  has  a  practical  value 
which  is  independent  of  all  controversy  ;  and  for  the  reason  that  it  does 
not  turn  on  the  necessity  of  the  succession,  but  on  the  historical  fact  that 
it  exists.  This  view  has  been  set  forth  by  W.  Archer  Butler  with  his 
characteristic  eloquence  and  vigor.  "  Men  have  dared  to  speak  slightingly 
of  this  conception  of  a  transmitted  commission.  I  appeal  from  hearts 
imbittered  by  controversial  disputings,  to  every  unprejudiced  mind,  when 
I  ask,  Is  there  not,  after  all,  something  unutterably  awful  in  the  thought 
of  a  mission  inherited  thus  directly  from  the  Incarnate  God  ?  When,  in- 
stead of  the  vague  inference  that  guides  the  proof  of  a  commission  in  the 
utility  of  the  office  or  the  necessity  of  the  time,  the  Minister,  however  humble, 
can  actually  trace  along  the  page  of  history  the  unbroken  succession  that 
ends  in  the  mighty  Twelve  and  their  mightier  Master  ;  when  the  voice 
that  bade  him  tend  the  flock  of  Christ  is  felt  to  be  the  echo  —  after  many 
a  reflection,  indeed,  yet  still  the  echo — of  the  voice  which  spoke  on  the 
evening  of  the  resurrection,  "Receive  ye  the  Holy  Ghost,"  and  that, 
again,  itself  an  echo  from  the  central  recesses  of  the  Father's  eternity  ; 
when  thus,  by  no  ideal  connection,  however  true  to  the  meditative  reason, 
but  by  plain  and  tangible  links,  we  see  ourselves  bound  to  the  living  and 
suffering  Christ,  — I  ask  you,  does  it  not  give  an  impression  c^^  reality,  of 
awful  and  awakened  reality,  to  our  whole  oflBce  ?  Does  it  Lot  seem  to 
bring  Christ  fearfully  near  us  ?  Must  not  a  man  thus  empowered  feel 
himself  sent  with  a  force  and  directness  nothing  else  can  supply,  charged 
with  a  work  from  which  he  dare  not  withdraw,  and  '  straitened  till  it  be 
accomplished'?"  —  Visitation  Sermon  by  W.  Archer  Butler  (2  Cor. 
iii.  6). 


86  Influence  of  the  Christian  Ministry. 

But  another  prolific  source  of  hinderance  to  the  Min- 
istry has  been  the  enormous  development  of  sectism  in 
modern  Christendom.  It  is  no  longer  necessary  to  prove 
the  evils  it  inflicts  as  though  any  one  denied  them,  or 
to  expose  them  as  though  there  were  a  disposition  any- 
where to  conceal  them.  We  no  longer  hear  the  apolo- 
gies once  so  familiar.  Happily,  though  the  evils  are  not 
diminished,  nor  the  power  which  creates  them  abated, 
it  is  a  great  gain  to  know  that  they  are  recognized  and 
deplored  as  among  the  bitter  fruits  of  the  confusion  and 
license  consequent  on  the  great  religious  upheaval  of 
the  sixteenth  century.  They  who  are  not  yet  prepared 
to  acknowledge  that  the  rending  of  Christ's  Body  is  a 
crime,  and  that  organized  sects  are  in  their  final  results 
organized  sins,  are,  at  least,  under  the  pressure  of  expe- 
rience, forced  to  admit  that  they  ai-e  mistakes,  and  that 
by  them  the  work  of  the  Church  is  sadly  obstructed  and 
in  many  cases  utterly  paralyzed.  Time  was  when  the 
zeal,  energy,  enterprise,  and  competitive  rivalries  which 
they  generated  were  themes  of  praise  and  admii-ation, 
and  the  eyes  of  good  men  seemed  to  be  closed  to  conse- 
quences which  have  since  been  proved  to  be  inevitable. 
But  it  is  now  seen  that  theii*  zeal  has  not  been  accord- 
ing to  knowledge,  and  therefore  largely  misdirected; 
that  their  energy  and  enterprise  have  been  attended 
with  a  destructive  friction  and  a  melancholy  wastage  of 
all  kinds  of  power ;  and,  finally,  that  the  rivalries  long 
ago  lost  all  that  is  wholesome  in  the  feeling  of  emula- 
tion, and  degenerated  into  painful  and  sometimes  scan- 
dalous strifes  for  denominational  fame  and  triumph. 

Now,  whatever  the  hurt  done  to  the  Church  as  a 


Influence  of  the  Christian  Ministry.  87 

whole,  or  to  any  of  its  parts  and  functions,  by  the  sect 
principle,  it  can  scarcely  be  doubted  that  the  Ministry 
has  been  the  chief  sufferer.  This  will  appear  from  the 
following  considerations :  — 

The  Ministiy  is,  by  its  constitution  and  appointment, 
the  most  demonstrative,  obvious,  and  continuous  means 
of  contact  between  the  Church  and  its  members,  also 
between  the  Church  and  the  world.  It  is  representative 
officially  and  actually  of  aU  that  the  Church  is  and 
does.  It  lives  and  works,  teaches  and  gnides,  serves 
and  suffers,  in  Christ's  stead.  It  concentrates  in  itself, 
in  virtue  of  its  mission  from  the  ever-living  Head,  all 
powers  and  gifts  of  reconciliation  between  God  and 
man.  It  is  the  living  tongue  to  the  written  Word,  the 
voice  of  deputies  and  ambassadors  sent  from  the  court 
of  heaven  to  a  world  dead  in  trespasses  and  sins ;  calling 
upon  it  to  accept  the  life  which  the  Lord  and  Giver  of 
life  offers  it  through  "the  spirit-bearing  organs"  of  the 
Church, — the  Body  of  Christ.  It  is  the  pastorate  which 
was  ordained  to  keep  alive  among  men,  not  merely  the 
memory  of  the  Great  Shepherd  of  souls,  but  a  sense  of 
the  very  presence  and  operation  among  them  of  the 
Divine  power  and  love  of  His  eternal  Pastorate. 

Whatever,  then,  assails  the  unity  of  the  one  Body,  the 
unity  of  the  one  Faith,  the  unity  of  the  one  Spirit,  cor- 
respondingly assails  the  Priesthood  in  the  highest  range 
of  its  influence.  Whatever  divides  Christ,  divides  eveiy 
thing  that  flows  from  Him,  and  especially  every  ordinance, 
every  institution,  purposely  created  to  represent  Him.  It 
is  and  must  be  true,  then,  that  the  Priesthood  has  been 
shorn  of  its  normal  power  over  men,  and  of  the  reverence 


88  Influence  of  the  Christian  Ministry. 

and  affection  which  it  has  a  right  to  demand  from  them, 
to  the  full  extent  that  sectism  has  injured  and  marred 
the  relations  of  Christ  and  his  Church  to  the  world  they 
came  to  redeem. 

But  let  us  glance  briefly  at  some  special  aspects  of  this 
evil.  One  disastrous  effect  of  the  prodigious  outgrowth 
of  sect-life  in  recent  times  has  been,  to  contract  more  and 
more  the  boundaries  of  universally  accepted  truth,  and 
to  expand  the  margin  of  doubtful  or  clashing  opinions. 
It  is  one  of  the  most  painful  features  of  the  times,  to 
see  how  steadily  and  insidiously  this  double  process  has 
been  going  on ;  how  the  area  of  faith  has  been  yielding 
inch  by  inch,  first  to  the  encroachments  of  controversy, 
and  then  to  the  settled  usurpations  of  doubt.  Some 
minds  have,  in  this  way,  parted  with  so  much  that  they 
were  once  taught  to  believe  needful  to  their  souls'  health 
and  salvation,  that  they  begin  to  question  what  will  be 
left.  One  limb  after  another  of  the  body  of  the  great 
Christian  tradition  has  been  cast  to  the  lions  of  unbelief, 
until  the  quiet  and  simple  folk  of  the  Kingdom  are  forced 
to  ask:  What  and  where  are  the  foundations  which 
cannot  be  uptorn  ?  Where  is  the  barrier  which  shall 
at  last  hold  in  check  these  conflicting  surges  of  dissent 
and  secession  X  Now,  in  no  direction  does  this  state  of 
things  tell  more  powerfully  for  evil  than  along  the  whole 
circuit  of  priestly  labor.  It  chills  the  fervor  and  ties 
up  the  tongue  of  the  Preacher,  because  he  knows  that 
they  who  listen  have  been  inoculated  with  the  spirit  of 
challenge  and  denial.  It  cuts  under  and  undermines 
the  Christian  nui'ture  of  the  young  in  the  family,  the 
school,  and  the  Church ;  for  they  too,  though  they  fail 


Influence  of  the  Christian  Ministry.  89 

to  catch  the  flavor  and  virtue  of  the  Church's  work  in 
their  souls,  will  not  fail  to  absorb  into  their  life-blood 
the  latent  infection  of  a  possible  uncertainty  clinging  to 
what  they  have  been  taught  as  most  certain  truth.  The 
ethics  of  the  Gospel,  moreover,  suffers  with  its  doctrine  ; 
and  the  Clergy  are  deprived  of  the  weight  of  authority 
which  should  belong  to  them  as  public  teachers  of  moral- 
ity, when  it  is  widely  suspected  or  believed  that  in  mat- 
ters of  faith  they  set  forth  as  the  doctrines  of  God  what 
are  only  the  commandments  of  men,  or  the  opinions  of 
a  school,  or  the  shibboleths  of  a  sect. 

Again,  the  issues  of  the  sect  spirit  affect  the  Clergy 
injuriously  in  other  ways.  If  those  issues  impair  the 
moral  tone  and  weaken  the  nerve-power  of  their  office, 
they  work  precisely  the  same  results  on  their  personal 
character,  their  Christian  manhood,  their  inner  religious 
life.  The  comprehensive  soul  shrinks  into  narrow 
methods  and  narrow  aims.  The  large  mind,  that  should 
have  fed  habitually  on  sublimities  of  thought,  work,  and 
worship  worthy  of  the  grandeur  of  the  whole  Catholic 
Body,  is  dwarfed  into  an  adroit  and  disciplined  organ  of 
the  peculiarities  of  a  sect ;  the  tender  and  loving  heart, 
that  should  have  expanded  without  limit  under  the 
boundless  love  and  tenderness  of  its  Lord,  pines  and  wilts 
under  the  intense  but  unhealthy  heat  of  sectarian  zeal. 
This  is  an  effect  of  which  comparatively  little  note  is 
taken,  and  yet  it  is  one  of  grave  importance.  Our  libra- 
ries abound  in  biographies  of  strong  and  learned  and 
earnest  Christian  men,  which  no  thoughtful  reader  can 
go  over  without  being  struck  with  the  cramp  and  chill 
and  deterioration  inflicted  upon  them  by  the  work  and 
training  of  a  sect. 


90  Influence  of  the  Christian  Ministry. 

And  then,  how  can  we  sufficiently  estimate  the  loss  of 
influence  to  the  Clergy  produced  by  the  same  cause 
through  wastage  of  gifts  and  resources  of  evei7  kind  ? 
Who  shall  measure  the  time,  the  talent,  the  learning, 
the  power  of  all  sorts,  given  up  to  religious  disputes  in- 
tended to  establish  the  credentials  of  rival  bodies,  or  to 
snatch  a  brief  triumph  over  a  defeated  foe  which  served 
only  to  bring  forth  a  harvest  of  conceit,  prejudice,  and 
bitterness,  and  then  lapsed  forever  into  nothingness  and 
oblivion  %  This,  however,  is  a  side  of  the  subject  which 
needs  only  to  be  named,  to  open  up  a  very  world  of 
illustrations  and  inferences  too  evident  to  need  any 
mention  here. 

In  a  previous  place,  I  alluded  to  the  evidences  of  the 
decline  of  Clerical  influence  over  academic  and  popular 
education  in  Europe  and  this  Country.  This  is  not  due 
so  much  to  the  hostility  of  the  State,  as  to  disagreements 
and  divisions  among  Christians  themselves.  The  State 
is  not,  as  some  argue,  necessarily  irreligious  because  it 
is  secular.  There  is  a  profound  instinct  in  all  wise  civil 
governments,  which  recognizes  and  is  glad  to  receive  the 
powerful  support  of  religion  in  the  maintenance  of 
rightful  authority.  This  feeling  may  not  find  formal 
utterance  in  organic  laws,  or  written  constitutions,  or 
special  statutes,  or  in  public  proclamations  from  chief 
magistrates ;  but  it  is  nevertheless  a  power  in  the  body 
politic,  which  rulers  are  not  likely  to  ignore  or  to  de- 
spise. It  has  in  more  than  one  case,  in  late  years,  been 
strong  enough  to  hold  in  check  wayward  statesmen  who, 
in  view  of  the  confusion,  not  to  say  anarchy,  now  pre- 
vailing in  the  relations  of  religion   to  the   State,  felt 


Influence  of  the  Christian  Ministry.  91 

quite  safe  in  proposing  educational  schemes  with  a  pro- 
nounced atheistic  flavor.  No  modern  State  has  been, 
or  is  now,  or  is  likely  to  become,  wantonly  infidel.  The 
risk  is  too  great.  Deliberately  and  under  the  forms  of 
law  to  assume  such  an  attitude,  would  be  to  cast  to  the 
winds  the  strongest  of  all  the  admitted  securities  of  peace 
and  order,  to  say  nothing  of  the  inevitable  damage  that 
would  be  inflicted  upon  all  social  and  material  interests. 
Accordingly  in  no  case,  it  is  believed,  except  where  the 
preposterous  claims  of  ultramontane  Popery  have  been 
so  pushed  as  to  become  a  just  occasion  of  suspicion 
and  fear,  has  any  living  State  repudiated  the  help  and 
sympathy  of  Christianity,  or  declined  to  consider,  and 
where  practicable  to  act  upon,  all  judicious  overtures  of 
its  representatives  looking  to  the  preservation  of  its  in- 
fluence over  the  education  of  the  masses.  The  difficulty 
is  not  altogether  in  the  State,  but  largely  among  the 
Clergy.  The  State  has  been  in  this  matter  a  homo- 
geneous unit,  ready  to  consider  any  scheme  for  combin- 
ing religion  with  education  which  could  command  a 
substantially  unanimous  assent  among  Christians.  But 
Christians  have  been  irreconcilably  divided  ;  they  have, 
both  here  and  abroad,  been  unable  to  agree  upon  any 
definite  plan  to  be  recommended  to  the  State.  And 
thus  the  sorest  of  calamities  has  come  to  pass.  Religion, 
ordained  by  Him  who  created  it  not  more  truly  than 
He  created  the  complete  being  of  man.  to  be  the  inner 
life,  the  saving  virtue,  of  all  human  education,  wanders 
among  our  State  schools,  and  looks  forward  to  the  same 
fate  in  some  countries  of  Europe,  as  an  alien  and  an  out- 
cast ;  and  this  simply  because  its  friends  cannot  agree  as 


92  Influence  of  the  Christian  Mi7iistry. 

to  the  di'ess  it  shall  wear,  and  as  to  the  message  it  shall 
deliver.  No  more  lamentable,  no  more  perilous  result 
of  the  divisions  of  Christendom,  can  be  named  or  im- 
agined ;  and  very  naturally  no  class  is  so  disastrously 
affected  by  it  as  the  Clergy, — educators  ex  officio^  called, 
trained,  set  apart  by  solemn  commission,  to  deal  with 
humanity  in  all  its  parts  and  aspects,  required  as  matter 
of  sacred  obligation  to  uphold  and  teach  all  that  is  pur- 
est and  best  in  character  and  life,  and  amid  the  supreme 
difficulty  of  their  task  as  teachers  and  fashioners  of  in- 
tellect, conscience,  and  will,  authorized  of  God,  as  His 
own  deputies,  to  draw  upon  Heaven's  treasury  of  super- 
natural helps  :  and  yet  here,  as  the  bitter  fruit  of  re- 
ligious dissensions,  practically  disabled  from  wielding 
any  portion  of  the  vast  machinery  provided  by  the 
nation's  wealth  for  the  culture  of  the  nation's  intelli- 
gence, and  the  development  of  the  nation's  life ! 

I  come  now  to  speak  of  still  another,  and,  if  possi- 
ble, more  serious  injury,  done  to  the  Ministry  by  the 
sect  spirit ;  and  this,  too,  in  a  sphere  of  work  around 
which  gather  the  most  momentous  responsibilities.  The 
Church,  in  the  complete  scope  of  its  work,  may  be  said 
to  be  charged  with  a  twofold  stewardship,  —  that  of 
building  itself  up  from  within,  disciplining  and  ripening 
in  the  graces  of  the  divine  life  its  own  members,  and  that 
of  delivering  unto  those  who  are  without,  and  especially 
unto  the  heathen,  the  message  of  its  Head  to  a  dying 
world.  The  one  is  its  internal  and  domestic  mission, 
the  other  its  external.  But  what  is  true  of  the  Body  is 
true  of  its  officers.  Now,  to  what  extent  the  Ministry 
has  been  hindered  and  thwarted  in  this  external  mis- 


Influence  of  the  Christian  Ministry.  93 

sion  to  heathen  races,  God  only  knows.  We  can  judge 
only  by  such  limited  and  partial  consequences  as  have 
revealed  themselves  on  the  surface.  But  these  are  so 
grave,  as,  when  we  think  of  them,  to  oblige  us  to  pause 
in  grief  and  astonishment.  Sect  divisions,  sect  competi- 
tions and  antagonisms,  are  bad  enough  where  the  Church 
is  firmly  established,  and  enjoys  the  support  of  the  cus- 
toms and  traditions  of  centuries.  But  they  are  immeas- 
urably worse  in  regions  where  it  has  only  entered  in,  but 
has  not  taken  root :  where  it  offers  itself  to  races  sunk 
in  darkness  and  barbarism,  as  a  new  and  original  power 
given  of  God  to  lift  them  up  into  the  blessed  unity  of 
the  gospel,  and  the  glorious  liberty  of  the  Incarnate 
Lord ;  and  yet  finds  itself,  in  the  presence  of  those 
races,  half  paralyzed  by  alienations  and  oppositions  bred 
in  its  own  bosom.  The  missionary  work  of  the  Ministry 
during  the  past  hundred  years  has  in  many  respects 
been  characteiized  by  a  certain  grandeur  of  aim  and 
achievement.  Its  record  is  full  of  labors  which  would 
have  reflected  honor  on  the  Church  in  its  best  ages. 
It  has  been  abundant  in  zeal,  hardship,  self-denial, 
courage,  patience,  and  martyrdom.  It  has  shown  an 
unfailing  readiness  to  confront  with  bravery  and  forti- 
tude the  perils  of  all  climates,  the  privations  of  all  lands, 
and  the  hostilities  and  obstinacies  of  all  forms  of  pagan- 
ism. And  yet  it  is  the  settled  and  universal  conviction 
of  Christians  themselves,  that  the  results  attained  are  so 
utterly  disproportioned  to  the  vast  resources  employed, 
as  to  excite  not  merely  disappointment  but  mortification. 
As  to  the  cause  of  it  there  is  little  or  no  disagreement, 
as  well  among  the  friends   and  supporters   of  Roman 


94  Influence  of  the  Christian  Ministry. 

Catholic  missions  (some  of  these  now  more  than  three 
hundred  years  old)  as  among  those  of  Reformed  Catho- 
lic and  Protestant  missions.  Missionary  teachers,  mis- 
sionary priests,  and  missionary  bishops,  all  of  whatever 
name,  tell  the  same  story  of  hinderance  and  partial 
defeat,  of  shame  and  bitterness  of  soul,  arising  from  sec- 
tarian rivalries  and  collisions.^     Thus  the  Ministry  has 

^  '*  In  the  East  India,  for  instance,  twenty  different  churches  and  sects 
are  laboring  to  convert  the  Hindus;  each  endeavoring  to  encroach  upon 
the  rest,  destroy  their  settlements,  and  gain  over  their  proselytes.  And 
■what  is  true  there  is  true  elsewhere :  so  that  Christianity  presents  itself 
to  the  intelligent  heathen  under  the  repulsive  aspect  of  division  and  un- 
certainty. In  Tahiti  the  French  Government,  years  ago,  took  possession 
of  the  Protestant  missions,  and  handed  them  over  to  French  Catholic 
emissaries.  In  Madagascar  the  emissaries  of  the  rival  churches,  (Ro- 
man) Catholic  and  Protestant,  brought  matters  to  such  a  pass  that  King 
Radema  oscillated  for  a  year  between  them,  and  when  he  was  murdered 
each  party  charged  the  other  with  the  crime;  and  the  mutual  hatred  and 
endeavors  to  supplant  one  another  still  continue.  In  1845  the  Protestant 
missionaries  were  ejected  from  Fernando  Po  by  the  Spaniards,  who  laid 
claim  to  the  island.  That  is  the  spectacle  presented  by  Christians  to  the 
gaze  of  the  heathen  world.  Christ  says  that  every  kingdom  divided 
against  itself  shall  be  destroyed.  We  understand  the  failure  of  mission- 
aries. And  that  is  not  all.  What  is  to  Christians  the  holiest  and  most 
venerable  of  all  places,  the  birth-land  of  our  faith,  where  Christ  taught, 
lived,  and  suffered,  is  now  the  meeting-place  of  churches  that  hate  one 
another.  Greeks,  Russians,  Latins,  Armenians,  Copts,  Jacobites,  Prot- 
estants of  various  names,  all  have  their  fortresses  and  intrenchments, 
and  are  intent  on  making  fresh  conquests  for  the  rival  churches.  To  the 
shame  of  the  Christian  name,  Turkish  soldiers  have  to  interfere  between 
rival  parties  of  Christians,  who  would  else  tear  one  another  to  pieces  in 
the  holy  places;  and  the  Pacha  holds  the  key  of  the  Holy  Sepulchre. 
The  strife  between  Latins  and  Greeks  for  the  possession  of  the  chapel  in 
1852  was  the  immediate  occasion  of  the  Crimean  war. 

*'  Truly  every  one  who  values  the  name  of  Christian  should  daily  pray 
to  God  for  a  fresh  outpouring  of  the  spirit  of  unity,  that  we  may  keep 
a  new  Pentecost  of  enlightenment,  peace,  and  brotherly  love."  —  Di5i-- 
linger's  Lectures  on  the  Re-union  of  the  Churches. 


Influence  of  the  Christian  Ministry.  95 

been  crippled  and  driven  back,  ay,  smitten  with  weak- 
ness and  dismay,  in  its  attempts  to  obey  the  great  com- 
mission of  its  Lord  to  go  forth  and  disciple  all  nations. 
And  thus,  too,  as  the  necessary  consequence,  the  Church, 
though  it  has  sown  in  tears,  has  failed  to  reap  in  joy. 

But,  of  all  the  causes  which  have  helped  to  weaken 
and  obstruct  the  proper  influence  of  the  Priesthood, 
none  has  wrought  more  powerfully  than  decay  of  disci- 
pline in  the  Church.  The  relaxation  of  dogmatic  belief 
is  not  a  more  marked  feature  of  our  present  Christianity 
than  the  relaxation  of  Church  discipline.  The  two  have 
a  very  intimate  connection,  and  it  is  only  natural  that 
they  should  advance  pari  passu.  Discipline  has  steadily 
declined  among  all  branches  of  the  Catholic  Body,  and, 
when  the  facts  are  remembered,  to  a  degree  most  singu- 
lar among  the  various  organizations  whose  origin  falls 
within  the  post-Reformation  period.  Roman  Catholic 
discipline  has  fallen  off  notoriously  in  most  Roman  Cath- 
olic countries.  The  old  system  in  its  main  provisions  is 
still  in  use.  It  is  very  effective  over  the  Clergy,  holding 
them  sternly  in  its  grasp,  and  causing  the  rank  and  file 
to  feel  that  death  is  to  be  preferred  to  any  form  of 
apostasy.  But  among  the  laity  it  is  another  matter.  It 
is  well  known  that  in  Italy,  Spain,  France,  Germany, 
and  Austria,  and  especially  in  Romish  populations  in 
North  and  South  x\merica,  the  men,  particularly,  can  be 
counted  by  millions  who  submit  outwardly  to  the  forms 
and  requhements  of  ecclesiastical  discipline,  but  in- 
wardly despise  and  reject  them;  while  other  millions 
can  be  found,  who,  in  spite  of  the  hidden  power  of 
"  latticed  ecclesiastics  "  and  the  impressive  demonstrations 


96  Influence  of  the  Christian  Ministry. 

of  Pope  and  Council,  openly  repudiate  the  very  points 
of  faith  and  obedience  which  it  is  the  primary  object  of 
discipline  to  enforce  and  preserve.  Regarded  as  a  sys- 
tem for  controlling  the  opinions  and  conduct  of  men  in 
the  interest  of  an  absolute  Church  authority,  there  can 
be  no  question  that  Romish  discipline  is  almost  a  mira- 
cle of  ingenuity.  It  has  been  slowly  evolved  from  the 
experience  of  centuries.  Its  anatomy  of  human  nature 
has  left  nothing  to  be  discovered.  Its  diagnosis  of 
spiiitual  disease  is  remarkable  for  its  thoroughness  and 
subtlety ;  while  those  who  work  the  system  are  not 
allowed  to  touch  it  until  they  have  been  well  instructed 
in  the  knowledge  of  casuistry  as  a  distinct  science  or 
rather  art.  And,  then,  besides,  there  is  a  veil  of  secrecy 
thrown  over  the  working  of  the  system  in  individual 
cases,  which  greatly  heightens  its  power  in  dealing  with 
both  the  strong  and  the  weak  points  of  those  subjected 
to  its  sway.  But  matchless  as  the  Roman  discipline  is 
in  ripeness  of  experience,  ingenuity  of  adaptation,  and 
fertility  of  resources,  it  has  not  proved  itself  a  match 
for  the  relaxation  and  license,  as  some  wiU  say,  or  the 
emancipation  and  liberty,  as  others  will  put  it,  of  this 
age.  The  evidences  of  its  diminished  influence  are  to 
be  found  in  every  civilized  country.  Votaries  in  abun- 
dance it  still  has,  and  over  these  the  old  sway  continues 
unabated ;  but  over  vast  multitudes  of  nominal  adher- 
ents who  swell  the  tables  of  Romish  statistics,  it  is 
steadily  declining  both  in  actual  power  and  in  public 
estimation. 

Substantially  the  same  may  be  said  of  the  present 
condition  of  discipline  among  the   leading  Protestant 


Influence  of  the  Christian  Ministry.  97 

Bodies,  all  of  which  started  originally  with  the  avowed 
purpose  of  tightening  up  and  purifying  the  Christian 
profession  beyond  what  the  average  of  Catholic  Christi- 
anity had  deemed  possible  or  necessary.  It  were  need- 
less to  go  into  particulars,  or  to  cite  the  numerous 
corroborative  statements  that  might  be  found  in  the  offi- 
cial documents  of  Synods,  Conferences,  and  Assemblies. 
The  fact  is  notorious,  and  it  is  spoken  of  in  terms  of 
mournful  regret,  that  these  Bodies  have  declined  utterly 
from  what  they  regard  as  the  once  health}'  stringency 
of  control  over  the  faith  and  morals  of  their  members. 

As  for  the  American  Catholic  Church,  it  is  in  some 
respects  scarcely,  if  at  all,  better  off.  It  has  kept  the 
faith  sharply  and  firmly ;  but  this  has  been  done,  not 
by  the  discipline  of  the  Church  as  technically  defined, 
but  in  spite  of  its  growing  relaxation  and  inefficiency. 
The  faith  among  us  has  enjoyed  a  certain  Divine  guar- 
anty of  perpetuity  by  the  maintenance  of  Apostolic 
order,  which,  in  a  large  sense  of  the  word,  must  be 
regarded  as  the  comer-stone  at  once  of  the  Church's 
discipline,  and  the  Church's  witness  to  the  truth.  And 
then  it  has  derived  an  almost  equal  advantage  from 
the  fact,  that,  amid  the  changes  and  the  tumults  of 
these  later  times,  it  has  been  safely  anchored  to  a  per- 
manent liturgical  worship,  and  thus  rescued  from  the 
errors  incidental  to  the  fluctuating  expositions  of  indi- 
vidual teachers.  But  as  regards  any  habitual  and  ac- 
knowledged disciplinary  restraint  upon  the  every-day 
life,  the  current  morals  of  its  people,  it  is  no  better 
off  than  the  several  Denominations,  and  much  worse  off 
than  Romanism. 


98  Influence  of  the  Christian  Ministry. 

If  we  turn  to  the  Church  of  England,  whose  strength 
and  weakness  repeat  themselves  of  necessity,  more  or  less, 
in  her  lineal  descendant,  we  find,  that  not\vithstanding 
she  has  all  the  appliances  and  forms  of  discipline,  and 
has  given  all  through  her  practical  theology  the  strong- 
est mtness  to  the  indispensable  need  of  discipline  to  a 
living  Church,  discipline  itself  has  in  fact  fallen  away 
into  almost  hopeless  confusion  and  weakness.  Whatever 
old  precedents  and  customs  and  even  statutes  may  say  to 
the  contrary,  there  is  no  discipline  for  the  laity.  Under 
the  broad  aegis  of  membership  in  her  as  the  National 
Church,  every  man  does,  so  far  as  law  goes,  what  is 
right  in  his  own  eyes.  There  is  practically  no  authority 
to  call  any  layman  to  account  for  what  he  thinks  or 
does  in  the  sphere  of  religion.  And  yet,  though  he 
may  deny  all  amenability  to  discipline,  he  may  act  as  one 
of  the  Church's  masters,  as  a  steward  of  her  revenues, 
as  a  ruler  of  her  Clergy,  as  a  judge  of  her  doctrines 
and  practices,  as  a  member  of  her  Vestries,  Synods,  and 
Church  Courts.  Nowhere  else  has  the  Church  and 
State  connection  hatched  such  a  brood  of  evils  as  in 
this  matter  of  discipline.  The  theory  on  which  this 
connection  rests  obliged  the  Church  to  surrender  what 
never  can  be  given  up  without  mortal  injury,  —  the 
right  to  govern  herself.  The  Church  still  adheres  to 
the  compact,  though  the  State  has  in  many  ways  set  it 
at  naught.  The  Church  is  bound,  the  State  practically 
free.  The  Church,  having  so  long  intrusted  her  proper 
work  of  discipline  to  the  State,  now  finds  herself  con- 
fronted by  these  two  mortifying  facts :  (1)  Long  disuse 
of  the  powers  of  self-government  has  created  a  timid 


Influence  of  the  Christian  Ministry.  99 

reluctance,  if  not  an  actual  incapacity,  to  resume  them ; 
(2)  The  State  refuses  any  longer  to  wield  them,  and  is 
not  ready  to  restore  them.  And  the  result  is,  there  is 
nothing  to  forbid  the  unbelieving  and  the  dissolute,  vio- 
lators of  her  laws  and  despisers  of  her  doctrine,  from 
not  only  calling  themselves  but  acting  as  her  members. 
There  are,  in  fact,  no  tests  of  Church-membership  that 
can  be  enforced  against  such  as  choose  to  resist  them. 

With  the  Clergy,  the  case  is  different^  They  make 
subscriptions  and  promises ;  they  assume  in  various  ways 
obligations  which  bind  them  as  the  laity  cannot  be  bound. 
And  yet  in  practice,  so  tedious  and  costly  is  the  admin- 
istration of  discipline  in  the  Church  of  England,  that 
there  is  great  reluctance  among  the  authorities  to  pro- 
ceed against  an  offending  Clergyman,  except  it  be  a 
case  of  such  extreme  unsoundness  of  teaching,  or  such 
gross  departure  from  the  Ritual  of  the  Church,  or  such 
manifest  immorality,  as  to  give  it  the  character  of  a 
public  scandal. 

With  us,  there  is  no  lack  of  disciphne  for  the  Clergy 
in  theory  or  in  fact.  A  singularly  large  proportion  of 
our  Canons,  General  and  Diocesan,  is  devoted  to  setting 
forth  the  mind  and  will  of  the  Church  on  this  subject. 
Offences  are  carefully  specified,  and  the  forms  of  judi- 
cial proceedings  are  plain  and  easy.  The  ecclesiastical 
courts  being  entirely  independent  of  State  regulation,  and 
amenable  to  civU  jurisdiction  only  when  they  violate  the 
Church  laws  by  which  they  profess  to  be  governed,  they 
are  simple  in  their  constitution  and  inexpensive  in  their 
administration.  Under  our  system,  it  is  difficult  neither 
to  enforce  nor  to  obtain  justice.     The  only  anomaly  in  it 


100  Influence  of  the  Christian  Ministry. 

is  the  absence  of  courts  of  appeal.     The  trials  in  the 
American  Church  have  been  surprisingly  few  when  we 
consider  how  numerous  and  widely  scattered  the  Clergy 
have  been,  and,  owing  to  the  remoteness  of  the  central 
governing  authorities,  how  great  has  been  the  temptation 
to  substitute  license  for  liberty  and  self-will  for  obedience. 
So  far  as  the  Clergy  are  concerned,  it  cannot  be  ques- 
tioned that  a  commendable  vigilance  has  been  exercised 
in   maintaining  purity  of  faith  and  morals.     The  one 
grievous  fault  of  our  discipline,  as  already  intimated,  is 
in  its  loose  and  inefficient  dealings  with  the  laity.     In 
this  direction  little  more  is  attempted  than  can  be  accom- 
plished by  pastoral  advice,  warning,  and  rebuke.     Sus- 
pension from  the  privilege  of  the  Sacrament  is  provided 
for  in  the  case  of  notorious  evil  livers ;  but  practically 
the  scandal  must  be  very  great  which  induces  a  Eector 
to  publish  and  enforce  the  suspension  of  a  communicant. 
It  is  the  general  habit,  to  be  ignorant  of  what  is  going 
on  in  the  private  lives  of  Church-members,  and  to  trust 
to  the  purity  and  soundness  of  the  individual  conscience 
as    a   safeguard   against  offences  worthy  of  discipline. 
But  clearly  such  ignorance  is  tolerable  only  because  of 
the  prevailing  slackness,  and   such  trust  is   proved  to 
be  most  unsafe  by  the  increasing  demoralization  of  the 
average  type  of  Christian  character. 

And  this  leads  me  to  observe,  that  there  is  no  more 
suggestive  or  profitable  study,  in  these  times,  than  that 
which  leads  us  to  compare  the  discipline  of  the  early 
with  that  of  the  modern  Church.  This  alone  can  open 
our  eyes  to  the  extent  of  our  degeneracy  in  this  par- 
ticular, and  to  one  of  the  chief  causes  of  the  diminished 


Influence  of  the  Christian  Ministry.  101 

influence  of  the  Clergy  and  of  the  slow  progress  of  the 
Church  of  the  nineteenth  century  as  compared  with  that 
of  the  first  three  centuries.  Even  a  hurried  glance  at 
the  history  of  the  primitive  Church  shows  us  that  the 
Christians  of  that  period  grasped  firmly  and  acted  reso- 
lutely upon  all  the  fundamental  principles  of  ecclesias- 
tical discipline,  as  being  one  of  the  necessary  marks  of 
a  true  Church.  No  special  guidance  or  inspiration  was 
needed ;  for  common-sense  and  universal  experience 
taught  them  (1)  that  no  society  or  association  could  live 
without  its  own  laws  and  regulations,  and  without  an 
inherent  authority  and  conceded  power  to  enforce  them  ; 
and  (2)  that  the  privilege  of  membership  in  any  cor- 
porate body  involved  the  duty  of  obedience.  But  they 
knew  also  that  the  Church,  as  a  Divine  institution, 
organized  for  the  noblest  and  most  difiicult  of  ends, 
deriving  its  charter  and  constitution  from  Jesus  Christ 
its  living  Head,  and  intended  to  outlive  the  ages,  was 
designed  to  be  the  most  compact  and  effecJtive  of  all 
possible  corporations  or  kingdoms.  There  was  nothing 
necessary  to  the  perpetuity  of  any  secular  corporation, 
that  was  not  far  more  so  to  the  perpetuity  of  this.  If 
societies  and  states  must  have  rules  and  laws  to  define 
and  enforce  the  conditions  and  duties  of  membership, 
the  terms  of  admission  and  exclusion,  the  punishments 
of  the  evil  and  the  rewards  of  the  good ;  much  more 
must  the  very  Body  of  Christ  have  them,  —  the  Body 
whose  members  were  to  be  as  salt  to  the  world's  cor- 
ruption, and  as  lights  set  upon  a  hill  amid  the  world's 
darkness ;  the  Body  whose  purity  was  to  clothe  all 
evil   with   a   darker    hue,  whose   heavenly   order   and 


102  Influence  of  the  Christian  Ministry. 

concord  were  to  rebuke  the  anarchy  of  a  world  lying 
in  wickedness,  and  whose  matchless  standard  of  conduct 
was  to  lift  sins  which  the  world  winks  at,  to  the  rank 
of  grievous  crimes  against  God  and  man.  And  all  this 
was  intensified  vastly  in  their  minds  by  the  fact  that  the 
governors  of  this  Body  were  to  rule  in  the  name  and 
authority  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  that  the  members  of  it,  if 
they  offended  against  each  other,  would  offend  chiefly 
against  Him. 

Acting  upon  these  principles  they  believed  the  Church 
to  possess  a  wide  discretion  in  its  disciplinary  legislation. 
Clearly  quite  unknown  to  them  was  the  narrow  theory 
urged  by  some,  that  its  power  to  enact  laws  was  limited 
by  the  express  or  implied  directions  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment. With  loyal  reverence  they  obeyed  Apostolic 
precedent  where  it  plauily  touched  the  case  in  hand; 
but  where  what  was  on  record  in  the  brief  history  of 
Christian  discipline,  such  as  sy nodical  judgments,  or 
the  rulings  and  sentences  of  individual  Apostles,  did  not 
help  them  to  meet  new  difficulties  and  exigencies,  they 
seem  not  to  have  hesitated  in  accepting  the  guidance 
of  a  sanctified  reason.  And  this  they  did  on  the  broad 
ground  that  the  Church  has  authority  from  its  Head  to 
do  whatever  is  needful  to  its  welfare  and  efficiency,  if 
it  do  not  contradict  the  spirit  or  the  teaching  of  God's 
written  Word.^  When,  in  the  great  forty  days,  Christ 
taught  the  disciples  the  things  pertaining  to  the  King- 
dom of  God,  we  must  believe  that  he  could  not  have 
omitted  to  instruct  them  in  the    elementary  principles 

1  This  is  the  ground  which  the  great  Hooker  defends  with  such  master- 
ly reasoning  and  profound  learning  in  his  Ecclesiastical  Polity. 


Influence  of  the  Christian  Ministry.  103 

of  ecclesiastical  jurisprudence.  These  principles,  first 
applied  by  the  inspired  Apostles,  were  handed  on,  and, 
with  the  promised  illumination  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  were 
gradually  wrought  up,  under  the  pressure  of  ever-vary- 
ing contingencies,  into  a  more  or  less  complete  digest 
of  Church  law,  which  has  descended  to  us  as  a  precious 
inheritance,  and  which,  in  every  intervening  age,  has 
given  tone  and  shape  to  all  sound  ecclesiastical  legis- 
lation. 

But  what  is  of  quite  as  much  consequence  to  observe 
is  the  impartial  and  resolute  administration  of  the  early 
discipline,  whatever  may  have  been  its  details.  Abun- 
dant illustrations  are  at  hand  from  the  practice  both  of 
the  Apostles  and  of  the  Church  of  the  Fathers,  The 
rich  and  the  poor,  the  titled  and  the  obscure,  rulers 
and  subjects,  the  teachers  and  the  taught,  transgressors 
of  every  grade,  sinners  against  truth,  sinners  against 
purity,  honesty,  and  charity,  fornicators,  covetous  men, 
idolaters,  railers,  drunkards,  extortioners,  litigators  in 
pagan  courts,  even  the  idle  and  the  lazy,  were  made  to 
feel  the  presence  and  power  of  the  law,  and  to  dread 
its  penalties.  Here  and  there  all  through  the  life  of 
St.  Paul,  whose  mission  lay  among  the  Gentile  Chris- 
tians, we  light  upon  evidences  of  his  energy  and  rigor 
as  a  disciplinarian.  Much  as  he  loved  the  brethren, 
ready  as  he  was  to  sacrifice  himself  for  them,  tenderly, 
importunately,  as  he  entreated  offenders  to  turn  from 
the  evil  of  their  ways,  he  did  not  hesitate  to  strike  when 
the  blow  was  needed,  and  with  a  vigor  and  decision 
which  drove  into  submission  or  into  banishment  all 
hardened   violators   of  the  Church's  rules.     And  then 


104  Influence  of  the  Christian  Ministry. 

later  on  in  the  sub- Apostolic  Church  how  vigilant,  firm, 
and  discriminating  was  the  penitential  system  it  estab- 
lished !  Oflfenders  were  not  massed  together  and  treated 
as  though  there  were  no  gradations  of  guilt  and  punish- 
ment. They  were  carefully  distributed  into  four  classes 
or  grades  of  penitents ;  each  with  its  own  badge  of  dis- 
grace, its  own  mode  of  purgation  and  restoration.  To 
all  this  was  added  the  most  patient  care  and  oversight 
in  regard  to  Christians  who  had  lapsed  under  the  terrors 
of  persecution,  or  the  enticements  of  ordinary  tempta- 
tion. The  whole  attitude  of  the  Church  in  this  matter 
of  discipline  was,  indeed,  that  of  the  Good  Shepherd 
who  knoweth  his  sheep  and  is  known  of  them,  and  who 
is  perpetually  mending  the  fold  wherever  broken  down, 
and  guarding  it  wherever  threatened  by  the  wolf  of  an 
ungodly  world. 

But  here  the  question  arises :  Why  did  the  Church 
so  sadly  fall  away  from  that  primitive  and  illustrious 
example  of  fidelity?  How  did  it  happen  that  she  so 
censurably  relaxed  her  discipline  for  reclaiming  sinners 
and  correcting  vice  ?  Why  this  loss  of  vigilant  super- 
vision, and  consequent  loss  of  moral  power?  Strangely 
enough,  there  are  those  who  account  what  the  Church 
generally  considers  a  deterioration,  as  a  higher  develop- 
ment. The  advocates  of  "  broad"  or  "liberal"  Chris- 
tianity, so  far  from  regretting,  rejoice  over  this  decay 
of  ecclesiastical  discipline.  They  find  in  it  the  signs  of 
growth  in  the  corporate  body,  and  of  emancipation  for 
the  individual  conscience  from  the  restraints  of  arbitrary 
authority.  They  accept  it  as  proving  the  overthrow  of 
sacerdotalism.     They  philosophize  on  the   matter  very 


Influence  of  the  Christian  Ministry.  105 

much  as  might  be  expected  from  those  who  utterly 
misconceive  the  nature,  the  work,  and  the  purpose  of 
the  Church  of  God.  Their  reading  of  history,  and  their 
reasoning  upon  its  facts,  seem  to  have  conducted  them 
to  these  three  results :  — 

(1)  That  the  discipline  which  was  necessarily  minute 
and  severe  when  Christianity  was  making  its  way  against 
the  aggressive  and  persecuting  opposition  of  the  old 
pagan  order  with  all  its  affiliated  vices  and  corruptions, 
was  no  longer  indispensable,  or  even  desirable,  when 
that  opposition  ceased,  and  the  Church  obtained  general 
recognition. 

(2)  That  Christianity  assumed  the  education  and  di- 
rection of  the  individual  conscience  when  it  was  in  its 
spiritual  childhood,  and  therefore  demanded  tutors  and 
governors  and  stringent  penitential  arrangements  to 
pilot,  it  through  the  entanglements  growing  up  on  all 
sides  out  of  the  intermixtures  of  the  old  heathen  and 
the  new  Christian  conditions  of  life ;  but  that  now,  inas- 
much as  the  individual  conscience  has  developed  into 
the  ripeness  of  spiritual  manhood,  and  has  put  away 
childish  things,  it  is  abundantly  able  to  stand  alone, 
and  ought  to  do  so  for  its  own  health ;  dispensing  with 
props  and  guides  and  restraints  once  acknowledged  to 
be  necessary. 

(3)  That  we  are  now  living  under  an  order,  —  the 
precious  fruit  of  all  past  progress,  —  which  has  lifted 
the  individual  out  of  slavish  subordination  to  political 
and  ecclesiastical  corporations,  and,  in  every  way,  made 
him  a  larger  and  more  self-centred  being ;  and  that,  as 
a  consequence,  he  has  acquired  the  right  and  the  habit 


106  Influence  of  the  Christian  Ministry. 

of  self-control;  and  hence,  that  he  no  longer  requires 
what  the  Church  once  so  efficiently  and  abundantly 
supplied.  Doubtless  there  is  a  degree  of  truth  in  this 
view.  It  sets  forth,  in  a  very  partial  and  misleading 
way,  one  side  of  the  result  which  has  been  produced  by 
the  Christian  training  of  mankind.  But  there  can  be 
just  as  little  doubt  among  sober  minds,  who  make  room 
for  all  the  facts  of  the  case,  that,  conceding  to  this  view 
all  that  it  can  really  claim,  we  are  veiy  far  from  the  con- 
clusion that  it  supersedes  or  diminishes  the  permanent 
necessity  of  some  authoritative  and  thoroughly  enforced 
system  of  discipline  in  the  Church  over  its  individual 
members.  To  declare  the  contrary,  would  be  to  declare 
obsolete  one  of  the  sovereign  attributes  of  the  Church, 
than  which  none  enters  more  essentially  into  its  original 
constitution.  It  may  be  admitted,  that  under  Christian 
civilization  the  individual  has  been  wonderfully  advanced 
in  culture,  prerogative,  and  opportunity,  and  that  an 
importance  now  attaches  to  the  obscurest  member  of 
society  never  dreamed  of  by  the  far-off  ancients.  But 
unless  we  are  to  fall  into  the  delusion  of  a  shallow 
optimism,  we  cannot  admit  that  man  has  now  reached, 
or  that  he  is  likely  to  reach,  in  this  world,  a  condition 
which,  either  in  Church  or  State,  will  enable  him  to 
dispense  with  an  external  discipline  for  his  sins  and 
infirmities,  or  with  governors  authorized  to  enforce  it. 

But  turning  from  these  sophisms  I  proceed  to  notice 
some  of  the  facts  of  history  which  help  us  to  account 
for  the  Church's  decline  in  discipline.  These  have  been 
stated  with  clearness  and  cogency  by  an  able  English 
writer.     Among  many  causes  more  or  less  operative,  he 


Influence  of  the  Christian  Ministry.  107 

names  three.  The  first  "  was  the  policy  by  which  the 
Papacy  reduced  the  Bishops  to  nullities.  By  continually 
withdrawing  people  from  canonical  obedience  to  the 
Bishops,  the  Pope  rendered  them  useless  in  the  man- 
agement of  their  dioceses.  Wherever  an  appeal  to 
the  Roman  court  lay,  the  Bishops  naturally  avoided  the 
contest.  Such  things,  as  now,  cost  money ;  and  the 
largest  purse  was  sure  to  win  the  day,  for  at  Rome  at 
that  time  every  thing  was,  as  the  old  proverb  had  it, 
put  to  sale."  "  A  second  cause  was  the  power  of  the 
nobles,  who  not  only  led  vicious  lives  themselves,  but 
encouraged  vice  in  their  followers.  Holy  Church  pre- 
vailed not  against  them,  save  in  the  hour  of  death,  when 
a  life  of  sin  was  scarcely  redeemed  by  cessions  of  broad 
lands,  which  at  last  evoked  the  Statute  of  Mortmain." 
"  A  third  cause  was  the  fusing  the  civil  and  ecclesias- 
tical judges  together,  which  had  much  the  same  look 
as  when  a  clerical  magistrate  sentences  a  laborer  for 
poaching,  or  interferes  between  labor  and  capital,  or 
takes  a  strong  line  in  politics.  Then  came  what  was 
called  the  handing  over  ecclesiastical  offenders  to  the 
secular  arm,  and  the  burning  of  heretics.  What  seemed 
to  be  an  augmentation  of  strength,  was  really  a  confes- 
sion of  weakness  on  the  part  of  the  Church.  At  no 
period  of  her  existence  was  the  Church  so  powerful  in 
the  service  of  God,  as  when  she  relied  on  her  own 
intrinsic  ability  to  deal  with  evil ;  and  at  no  period  of 
her  life  has  she  shown  such  weakness,  as  when  she 
looked  to  kings  and  princes  for  aid  and  maintenance."  ^ 
Externally,  the  Church  in  this  country,  from  a  period 

1  Ecclesiastical  Essays. 


108  Influence  of  the  Christian  Ministry. 

coeval  with  the  beginning  of  our  nationality,  has  been 
entirely  free  to  legislate  on  all  matters  affecting  its  cor- 
porate interests  or  its  control  over  its  members.  There 
was  nothing  in  the  way,  so  far  as  the  State  was  con- 
cerned, to  forbid  its  resumption,  to  the  fullest  extent, 
of  the  primitive  discipline.  But  internally  its  life  was 
bound  hand  and  foot  by  the  traditions  and  usages  of  the 
Mother  Church.  It  accepted  without  challenge,  almost 
without  consciousness,  as  part  of  its  inheritance,  the 
chronic  and  enfeebling  laxity  of  discipline  which  had 
grown  up  in  and  fastened  upon  the  Church  of  England 
under  the  influence  of  vaiious  causes  (some  of  which 
have  been  named)  developed  in  pre-Reformation  times. 
As  we  have  seen,  this  laxity  no  longer  exists  in  regard 
to  the  Clergy.  The  Church  has  resumed  its  full  author- 
ity over  them  in  faith  and  morals,  and  has  embodied 
this  authority  in  a  system  of  discipline  which  leaves 
little  to  be  desired  either  in  its  canonical  arrangement 
or  in  the  moderated  rigor  of  its  administration.  But 
with  regard  to  the  laity,  the  discipline,  if  such  it  can  be 
called,  of  the  American  Church,  is  practically  on  a  level 
with  that  of  the  English  Church ;  and  the  fact  that  it 
is  so  is  fraught  with  mischief  and  hinderance  to  the 
Ministry  in  the  following  ways :  — 

(1)  ^he  Ministry  is  brought  into  discredit  by  its 
great  claims  and  its  small  performance  ;  by  the  substan- 
tial powers  theoretically  conveyed  to  it  when  receiving 
its  official  warrant  to  teach  and  rule  in  the  Church  of 
Christ,  and  by  the  very  imperfect  and  often  absurdly 
weak  exercise  of  those  powers  under  the  stringent  limit- 
ations imposed  by  custom  and   by  the    temper  of  the 


Influence  of  the  Christian  Ministry.  109 

times.  The  Ordinal  presents  an  inspiring  outline  of  au- 
thoritative guidance  and  supervision.  Its  noble  words, 
borrowed  mainly  from  Scripture,  have  the  ring  of  real 
power.  They  stir  the  heart  of  the  waiting  candidate 
for  the  honors  and  the  dangers  of  the  Holy  Office.  They 
speak  to  the  people  in  tones  that  cannot  be  mistaken. 
They  bear  with  them  the  breath  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  and 
the  divine  prerogatives  of  a  Kingdom  which  is  not  of  this 
world.  They  revive  the  memory  of  what  an  Apostolic 
Ministry  once  was  and  did.  Somehow  the  glory  and 
might  of  a  great  spiritual  ancestry,  stretching  back  to  the 
day  of  Pentecostal  gifts,  overshadows  them.  They  could 
not  have  been  placed  where  they  are,  except  by  men 
whose  souls  had  been  baptized  into  the  spirit  of  our 
Lord's  commission  to  His  Apostles,  and  to  all  whom 
through  them  and  their  successors  He  would  be  pleased 
to  send  out  into  the  ^dneyard  unto  the  end  of  the  world. 
It  vrill  be  recollected  in  what  solemn  and  pointed  lan- 
guage the  Bishop  is  instracted  by  the  Church  to  addi'ess 
the  candidates  for  the  Holy  Office  of  Priesthood,  before 
putting  the  series  of  questions  which  compass  the  whole 
round  of  official  and  private  duty.  And  then,  after  the 
Veni  Creator  Spiritus  and  the  prayer  of  thanksgiving,  fol- 
low the  momentous  words :  "  Receive  the  Holy  Ghost  for 
the  Office  and  Work  of  a  Priest  in  the  Church  of  God, 
now  committed  unto  thee  by  the  imposition  of  our  hands. 
AVhose  sins  thou  dost  forgive,  they  are  forgiven ;  and 
whose  sins  thou  dost  retain,  they  are  retained.  And  be 
thou  a  faithful  dispenser  of  the  Word  of  God,  and  His 
Holy  Sacraments :  In  the  Name  of  the  Father,  and  of 
the  Son,  and  of  the  Holy  Ghost.     Amen." 


110  Influence  of  the  Christian  Ministri/. 

Such  is  the  outUne  of  the  commission.  As  to  the 
filling  of  it  up,  it  were  needless  to  speak  in  detail.  If  we 
look  to  the  practical  working  of  the  average  pastorate, 
we  are  almost  forced  to  exclaim,  How  grand  the  ideal ! 
How  poor  the  reality !  The  Priest,  as  he  gets  into  the 
thick  of  his  work,  soon  sees  that  gifts  conveyed  in  his 
ordination  lie  dormant  at  the  very  heart  of  his  Ministry, 
and  that  powers  then  conferred  he,  somehow,  is  not  per- 
mitted to  use.  He  is  pained  with  a  sense  of  shrinkage ; 
and  whether  it  be  in  himself,  or  in  his  conception  of  the 
office,  or  in  the  office  itself,  he  is  puzzled  to  decide. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  people  are  quick  to  perceive 
what  the  Priest  so  keenly  feels;  and  not  seldom  they 
are  prone  to  attribute  to  timidity  or  unfaithfulness  what 
he  knows  to  be  due  to  their  own  restiveness,  not  to  say 
insubordination,  under  any  exercise  of  real  authority  in 
deaUng  with  individual  souls  by  one  appointed  to  be  an 
overseer  and  ruler  of  the  flock  of  Christ.  The  truth  is, 
the  Church  in  ordaining  her  Priests  puts  them  on  one 
plane  of  prerogative  and  responsibility,  while  by  the  loose 
discipline  which  the  free  and  easy  temper  of  modern 
religion  has  in  part  forced  upon  her,  she  has  allowed 
the  life  of  her  members  to  drop  to  a  lower  one  ;  and  the 
result  is  a  disastrous  blow  to  that  very  side  of  the  Priest- 
hood which  theoretically  is  supposed  to  be  in  habitual 
contact  with  every  soul  that  looks  to  it  for  food  and 
guidance. 

(2)  But  our  lax  discipline  obstructs  and  damages  the 
work  and  influence  of  the  Ministry,  because  it  cheapens 
and  degrades  the  privilege  of  Church-membership.  It 
is  scarcely  too  much  to  affirm,  that,  as  one  fruit  of  the 


Influence  of  the  Christian  Ministry.  Ill 

sharp  sect  rivalries  and  competitions  in  the  matters  of 
wealth  and  numbers,  the  multitude  have  come  to  regard 
admission  to  the  communion  of  the  Church  as  much 
more  of  a  favor  to  the  Church  than  to  themselves.  The 
Church  is  patronized,  rather  than  obeyed ;  and  so  with 
her  Clergy.  Men  give  their  money  and  influence,  help 
to  build  churches,  support  services,  pay  for  the  luxury 
of  fine  oratory  and  showy  music,  make  their  way  into 
vestries  and  conventions,  legislate  and  dictate  and  gov- 
ern, and  aU  in  a  spuit  of  worldly  ambition  and  vanity ; 
and  then  count  upon,  and,  if  they  do  not  get  it,  demand, 
easy  treatment,  smooth  words,  cunning  glosses  of  fash- 
ionable sins.  Threats  of  suspension  or  excommunica- 
tion for  gross  scandals  fall  upon  the  ear  as  idle  pastoral 
thunder.  If  driven  out  from  one  fellowship,  offenders 
are  assiu'ed  in  advance  of  a  welcome  into  some  rival 
Christian  Body,  provided  they  bring  with  them  an 
equivalent.  So  far  has  this  evil  gone,  that  certificates 
of  good  standing  are,  in  many  cases,  neither  asked  for 
by  religious  itinerants,  nor  demanded  by  those  whose 
fellowship  they  seek.  The  fences  are  down ;  the  eccle- 
siastical world  is  all  open  where  to  choose ;  boundary- 
lines  are  wiped  out;  the  world  and  the  Church  have 
come  to  a  friendly  understanding,  or  at  least  a  kind  of 
truce  on  that  vast  battle-field,  from  the  centre  of  which 
rises,  as  an  undying  protest,  the  blood-stained  cross  of 
the  Son  of  God.  And  so  it  has  come  to  pass,  that 
though  the  Priests'  lips  keep  knowledge,  though  the 
ordained  deputies  of  Christ  minister  at  the  altar,  and 
speak  from  the  pulpit  on  the  old  themes  of  the  Gospel, 
they  are  treated  by  the  mass  of  believers  as  wearing  the 


112  Influence  of  the  Christian  Ministry/. 

semblance  of  official  power  without  the  reality ;  and  if 
under  provocation  they  venture  upon  bold,  sharp  words 
of  rebuke,  they  are  regarded  only  as  giving  a  pungent 
equivalent  for  their  professional  hire.  When  one  recalls 
all  that  is  in  the  moral  atmosphere  about  us ;  when  one 
thinks  how  Christians  on  all  sides  ravel  and  bleach 
out  in  a  matter-of-course  way  into  the  amusements  and 
pleasures  and  luxurious  sensualism,  if  not  open  ungodli- 
ness, of  the  world,  and  how  all  this  re-acts  upon  the  life 
of  the  Church  and  the  work  of  her  Priesthood,  he  must 
be  a  very  blind  or  ignorant  man  who  will  consider  what 
has  been  said  as  the  language  of  satire  or  exaggeration. 
Would  to  God  that  it  could  be  justly  so  characterized ! 
The  time  has  come  when  the  credit  of  the  Priesthood, 
the  honor  of  the  Church,  the  integrity  of  the  Gospel, 
demand  that  judgment  shall  begin  at  the  House  of  God, 
and  shall  not  cease  in  its  goings  forth  until,  armed  once 
more  with  the  scourge,  and  it  may  be  the  sword,  of  a 
revived  discipline,  she  shall  purge  the  host  of  God's 
elect,  driving  out  from  the  camp  the  deserters,  the 
hangers-on,  hypocrites  in  saintly  livery,  cowards  in  sol- 
diers' uniform,  men  who  think  to  buy  the  gifts  of  God 
with  money,  unclean  traders  in  the  temple,  despoilers 
of  the  treasures  of  Israel.  Mere  strength  of  numbers  is 
a  delusion ;  popularity  is  a  snare  of  the  Devil.  Better 
the  few  who  are  true  and  tried,  than  the  useless  dis- 
orderly rabble.  Better  to  go  back  into  *dens  and  caves 
of  the  earth,  and  be  pure  and  strong,  than  to  dwell  in 
shame  and  weakness  amid  the  glories  of  our  modern 
architecture.  Ay,  it  were  a  blessing,  if  nothing  else 
can  bring  back  the  old  tone  and  nerve  of  Christianity, 


Influence  of  the  Christian  Mi7iistry»  113 

• 

that  the  world,  grown  weary  in  its  proud  selfishness  of 
the  chiding  voice  of  the  religion  of  the  Cross,  should 
once  more  breathe  on  the  smouldering  cinders  of  its 
hate,  and  rekindle  the  flames  of  persecution,  which,  in 
burning  away  the  di'oss,  would  leave  the  fine  gold  meet 
to  adorn  the  Spouse  of  Christ. 


LECTUEE  III. 

EVIDENCES    OF    INTELLECTUAL    VIGOR    AND    ACTIVITY    IN 
THE  MINISTRY. 

At  the  most,  it  is  only  a  few  of  the  leading  aspects 
of  a  subject  so  vast  and  varied,  that  I  can  hope  to  treat. 
To  find  the  evidences  which  my  theme  obliges  me  to 
produce,  I  must  in  a  free  and  sketchy,  though  not  in- 
accurate manner,  travel  over  the  lines  of  mental  activity 
along  which  the  Clerical  mind  has  moved  with  the  most 
power.     Mere  summaries  of  results  will  not  answer.     It 
seems  rather  to  be  incumbent  on  me,  to  reproduce  in  a 
fresh  and  living  way  the  processes  of  thought,  and  the 
uses  and  adaptations  of  old  and  new  learning,  by  which 
results  have  been  reached.     We  want  to  know  not  only 
the  intellectual  aims  of  the  Clergy,  but  the  intellectual 
energy  displayed  by  them  in  reaching  these    aims.     I 
give  the  inquiry  this  turn,  because  it  is  so  often  alleged 
that  the  Clergy,  as  a  body,  have  declined  in  intellectual 
force.     As  it  was  once  considered  the  right   thing   to 
rate  this  force  at  the  highest,  so  now  it  is  coming  to  be 
the  fashion  to  rate  it,  if  not  at  the  lowest,  at  least  as 
on  the  decline  as  compared  with  that  of  other  learned 
classes.     I  hope  to  show  that  the  facts  give  no  counte- 
nance to  this  opinion,  and  that  the  opinion  itself,  so  far 
as  it  exists,  is  due  not  to  any  such  decline  of  mental 


Intellectual  Vigor  and  Activity  in  the  Ministry.  115 

power  and  enterprise  among  the  Clergy,  but  to  a  decline 
of  sympathetic  interest  among  mankind  generally,  in 
the  distinctive  truths  which  the  Clergy  are  set  apart  to 
teach. 

There  are  two  extreme  wings  of  the  Clerical  body 
(I  use  the  phrase  "  Clerical  body"  in  the  broad,  popular 
sense)  which  take  little  interest  in  this  inquiry,  and  for 
reasons  characteristic  of  each.  The  very  liberal  and 
progressive  class  among  the  Protestant  Clergy  hold  so 
diluted  a  conception  of  the  Ministry  as  a  Divine  voca- 
tion, that  they  are  quite  indiiFerent  to  encroachments 
on  its  prestige.  They  rather  prefer  to  be  spoken  of  as 
thinkers  and  reformers,  as  a  moral  and  intellectual  leaven 
pervading  the  mass  of  living  thought,  than  as  men  or- 
dained to  a  holy  function.  With  this  view  of  their  call- 
ing, it  is  not  strange  that  they  should  feel  no  special 
concern  in  the  presei*vation  of  its  traditional  dignity  and 
influence.  If  any  one  says  that  the  Christian  Priest- 
hood is  growing  more  and  more  circumscribed  in  its 
power  to  guide  the  mind  of  the  age,  or  to  restrain  the 
more  doubtful  tendencies  of  modern  life,  it  is  no  offence 
to  them.  They  have  graduated  into  a  wider  calling. 
They  belong  to  the  great,  universal  priesthood  of  knowl- 
edge, civilization,  and  philanthropy ;  and,  provided  that 
the  age  be  held  to  the  path  of  safety  and  progress,  they 
are  indifferent  to  the  source  of  the  influence  that  does 
it.  Indeed,  some  of  the  more  advanced  of  this  class 
count  it  an  occasion  of  congratulation  when  they  see, 
or  think  they  see,  Clerical  influence  ravelling  out,  and 
being  overlaid  or  absorbed  by  forces  which  are  general 
and  imdistinctive.    This  is  a  noteworthy  symptom  of  the 


116  Intellectual   Vigor  and  Activity  in  the  Ministry. 

times.  It  has  its  origin  in  a  low  view  of  the  Ministry, 
that,  in  its  turn,  is  the  inevitable  product  of  a  self-made 
and  anarchical  type  of  ecclesiasticism,  which,  as  it  has 
no  honored  lineage  reaching  back  into  the  distant  past 
to  maintain,  blends  easily  with  every  thing  that  hap- 
pens to  be  stronger  and  more  positive  than  itself. 

On  the  other  wing  are  the  Clergy  of  the  Church  of 
Rome.  They  have  little  interest  in  this  subject,  because 
they  allow  no  doubts  to  be  raised  among  themselves,  or 
among  their  adherents,  as  to  the  security  of  their  posi- 
tion and  the  undiminished  extent  of  their  influence. 
They  wield  an  authority  which  they  will  not  permit  to 
be  questioned  by  those  who  submit  to  it  at  all.  They 
have  a  hold  on  the  individual  conscience  which  enables 
them  to  control  nearly  every  thing  else  connected  with 
individual  life,  and  so  to  exclude  from  their  flocks  most 
of  the  sources  of  agitation  and  resistance.  As  them- 
selves are  taught  from  the  start,  so  they  teach  the  souls 
whom  they  guide,  to  turn  a  deaf  ear,  as  to  the  voice  of 
the  arch-tempter,  to  all  exciting  and  threatening  ques- 
tions that  hover  over  the  stu'mish-line  between  religion 
and  modern  thought.  Their  professional  drill  is  so 
severe  as  to  weed  out  every  bias  of  will  or  intellect  to 
which  such  questions  could  appeal.  They  teach  and 
minister  as  they  are  ordered,  with  no  apparent  concern 
about  the  possible  efi'ect  of  extraneous  forces  upon  the 
system  which  they  represent.  Their  priesthood  in  its 
practical  power  flows  through,  without  mixing  with,  the 
surrounding  water-courses  of  the  age. 

But  though  this  subject  may  be  deemed  unimportant 
in  the  two  quarters  named,  it  is  of  vital  concern  to 


Intellectual  Vigor  and  Activity  in  the  Ministry.     117 

those  who  believe  in  a  Scriptural  and  Apostolic  Priest- 
hood, and  who,  while  protecting  it  against  the  dilutions 
of  a  false  liberalism  and  the  dangerous  accretions  of 
Romish  prerogative,  would  rejoice  to  see  it  moving  in 
the  fulness  of  its  strength  upon  a  world  dead  in  tres- 
passes and  in  sins.  In  treating  the  subject,  I  shall  not 
refer  to  the  matter-of-course  labors  of  the  Clergy  in  their 
e very-day  occupation  as  teachers,  —  labors  which  aim 
to  utilize  the  results  of  recondite  studies,  or  to  simplify 
and  illustrate  material  already  at  hand.  Diversified  and 
necessary  as  these  labors  are,  and  much  as  they  draw 
upon  the  best  learning  and  mental  skill,  they  do  not 
exhibit  the  sort  of  mental  activity  and  culture  needful  to 
establish  what  it  is  now  proposed  to  prove.  The  evi- 
dence needed  must  be  found,  if  at  all,  in  the  deeper 
and  more  methodical  studies  of  the  Clergy,  the  fruits  of 
which  appear  in  the  Christian  literature  of  the  time. 

Very  natui'ally,  theology  is  the  first  to  claim  our 
attention.  How,  then,  let  it  be  asked,  have  the  Clergy 
acquitted  themselves  in  this  their  own  especial  domain  ? 
What  is  there  here  to  attest  the  industry,  zeal,  and  learn- 
ing of  their  order,  or  to  prove  that  they  have  shared  as 
fully  as  they  ought  in  the  characteristic  enterprise  and 
movement  of  the  age  %  In  one  respect  this  inquiry  puts 
them  at  a  disadvantage  at  once.  Unlike  most  other 
departments  of  knowledge,  theology  offers  no  room  for 
discoveries.  It  stimulates  speculation  on  the  deepest 
themes,  but  does  not  encourage  the  speculator  to  hope 
that  he  can  produce  any  thing  original.  It  rejoices  to 
have  its  contents  handled  with  freshness  and  vigor,  but 
it  holds  out  no  prizes  for  novelty  of  matter.    Its  attitude 


118     Intellectual  Vigor  and  Activity  in  the  Ministry. 

on  the  whole  is  that  of  the  old,  the  continuous,  and  the 
settled,  seeking  to  keep  its  foot-hold  amid  the  new, 
the  temporary,  and  the  fluctuating.  As  a  consequence, 
the  true  theologian  neither  covets  nor  expects,  however 
profound  his  erudition,  or  however  valuable  its  practical 
fruits  to  thousands  of  schools  and  pulpits  and  libraries, 
the  applause  which  the  general  mass,  even  of  the  edu- 
cated, bestow  only  upon  those  who  startle  them  with  a 
new  invention,  or  with  a  fresh  and  tangible  contribution 
to  their  stock  of  knowledge.  The  work  of  the  theolo- 
gian, whether  in  itself  or  in  its  results,  cannot  be  judged 
by  the  same  standard  as  that  of  the  scientist,  the  meta- 
physician, the  man  of  letters.  With  this  fact  duly  recog- 
nized, I  ask,  what  have  the  Clergy  to  say  for  themselves 
as  thinkers  and  students  in  theology  ? 

I  affirm  then,  generally,  that  theology,  as  pursued  and 
expounded  by  the  Clergy,  has,  during  the  past  genera- 
tion, lost  no  substantial  ground  amid  its  conflicts  with 
opposing  forces.  Considering  how  many  of  the  oracles 
of  modern  learning  and  criticism  have  been  busy  in 
heaping  obloquy  upon  it,  or  in  reviving  hard  stories 
about  its  narrowness  and  bigotry  in  the  past,  and  its 
hostility  in  the  present  to  free  inquiry  and  the  progress 
of  knowledge ;  nay,  considering  the  eff'oi'ts  put  forth  to 
discredit  it  altogether  as  a  recognized  member  of  the 
family  of  sciences,  —  it  would  be  strange  if  its  prestige 
had  not  suffered.  And  yet  its  place  among  the  great 
departments  of  knowledge  remains  undisturbed.  As  a 
science  it  now  attracts,  to  say  the  least,  as  much  atten- 
tion, excites  as  much  discussion,  creates  as  much  habit- 
ual  and   cultivated   intellectual  activity,  as  any  other. 


Intellectual  Vigor  and  Activity  in  the  Ministry.     119 

Even  the  most  advanced  thinkers,  who  claim  to  have 
driven  it  into  exile,  are  constantly  recalling  it.  They 
cannot  handle  any  of  the  deeper  problems  touching 
God  and  man  and  nature,  without  crossing  its  domain ; 
nor,  as  they  do  so,  without  paying  tribute  to  its  sove- 
reignty even  in  the  realm  of  disciplined  intellect.  That 
theology,  in  spite  of  all  that  has  been  said  and  done 
to  abolish  or  undermine  or  disintegrate  it,  should  have 
held  its  own,  viewed  simply  as  a  science,  is  an  incon- 
testable proof  of  the  learning  and  ability  of  its  special 
teachers  and  guardians. 

But  to  appreciate  even  slightly  the  force  of  this  sort 
of  evidence,  we  must  glance  somewhat  more  in  detail 
at  the  influences  which  have  combined  to  disparage  or 
override  the  claims  of  theology.  It  is  not  individuals, 
however  eminent  for  genius  and  erudition,  that  I  care 
to  mention,  but  rather  certain  great  tidal  movements 
in  the  history  of  recent  thought.  The  first  of  these  to 
arrest  attention  in  this  connection  is  what  is  known  on 
its  scientific  side  as  positivism,  and  on  its  practical  side 
as  secularism.  This  system  of  thought,  the  product  of 
French  speculation,  after  running  through  the  weU- 
known  schools  of  materialism,  eclecticism,  and  socialism, 
as  expounded  by  De  Tracy,  Cousin,  and  Fourier,  is  not 
merely  anti-Christian,  but  atheistic.  It  is  the  portentous 
amalgam  of  all  that  was  bad  in  the  previous  dreams 
and  eccentricities  of  the  intellect  of  France.  Silent 
about  God,  spii'it,  personal  immortality,  it  regards  "  sci- 
ence as  the  only  revelation,  demonstration  as  ttb.e  only 
authority,  nature's  laws  as  the  only  Providence,  and 
obedience   to  them    as   the    only   piety."      It   aims    to 


1 20     Intellectual  Vigor  and  Activity  in  the  Ministry. 

destroy  Christianity  by  destroying  the  possibility  of  its 
proof.  It  views  religion  as  the  product  of  an  unscien- 
tific age,  for  which  a  belief  in  the  laws  of  nature  and 
the  discoveries  of  science  is  a  sufficient  substitute.  The 
order  in  nature  which  we  are  wont  to  regard  as  the 
result  and  the  evidence  of  a  designing  intelligence,  it 
admits ;  but  refuses  to  infer  from  that  order  the  exist- 
ence of  any  such  presiding  mind,  except  so  far  as  it 
can  be  verified  by  proof  resting  on  oiu'  own  sensible 
experience.  The  whole  history  of  thought  records  no 
grosser  type  of  materialism.  It  is  worse  than  a  return 
to  the  lowest  grade  of  the  old  Pagan  speculations. 
Indeed,  few  thinkers  could  be  named  in  ante-Christian 
times,  who,  if  this  system  had  appeared  in  their  day, 
would  not  have  been  shocked  and  disgusted  at  its  idola- 
trous worship  of  mere  phenomena,  and  its  scorn  for  the 
very  conception  of  an  original  or  a  final  cause.  It  is  its 
avowed  aim  to  tear  up  and  scatter  to  the  winds,  as  so 
much  hoary  superstition  and  illogical  sentimental  trash, 
the  whole  frame-work  of  theology.  Christianity  at  best 
is  only  the  latest  and  ripest  of  religions,  the  already- 
decaying  symbol  of  a  higher  truth  towards  which  hu- 
manity is  tending ;  and  theology  shares  of  necessity  in 
the  nature  of  that  which  it  expounds.  Positivism  is 
not  merely  a  thing  on  paper,  or  the  quiet  dream  of 
minds  that  are  content  to  die  and  make  no  sign.  On 
the  contrary,  it  has  a  practical  side  where  it  is  boldly 
aggressive  and  sternly  dogmatic  in  the  assertion  of 
what  it  teaches.  No  school  has  ever  shown  a  more 
passionate  desire  to  propagate  its  teachings.  It  openly 
aspires  to  be  considered  as  a  philosophy  of  life,  and  a 


Intellectual  Vigor  and  Activity  in  the  Ministry.     121 

substitute  for  religion.  It  accepts  with  evident  relish 
the  title  of  secularism,  because,  as  the  name  implies,  it 
asserts  it  to  be  the  great  business  of  man  to  attend  to 
the  affairs  of  the  present  world  which  is  certain,  rather 
than  of  a  future  which  is  uncertain. 

Different  in  some  respects  from  positivism,  and  yet 
identical  with  it  in  its  tendency  to  sweep  away  the 
foundations  of  theology,  is  the  system  of  philosophy 
elaborated  and  expounded  by  Mr.  Herbert  Spencer. 
In  considering  the  present  relations  of  theology  to  the 
general  thought  of  the  time,  it  is  impossible  to  ignore 
those  features  of  his  system  which  antagonize  its  funda- 
mental principles.  In  his  "  First  Principles  of  a  New 
System  of  Philosophy,"  he  begins  with  an  attempted 
reconciliation  of  religion  and  science.  But  unfortu- 
nately the  reconciliation  consists  in  eliminating  religion 
from  the  field  of  rational  thought.  He  admits  the  ex- 
istence of  the  religious  sentiment,  but  denies  the  possi- 
bility of  constructing  a  religion  which  shall  rest  upon 
absolute  truth.  Human  nature  needs  religion,  and  will 
have  one  of  some  sort;  but  it  must  be  content  with 
religions  which  are  as  likely  to  be  false  as  to  be  true. 
The  religious  sentiment,  instead  of  being  regarded  as 
an  inherent  and  indestructible  element  in  the  moral 
constitution  of  man,  is  represented  as  a  gradual  growth 
or  accretion  starting  in  a  certain  vague  feeling  of  awe, 
which,  in  turn,  is  the  product  of  the  perpetual  contact 
of  the  human  mind  with  the  unknown  and  unknow- 
able Infinite.  From  this  almost  formless  germ,  the 
religious  sentiment  has  been  developed  by  orderly,  con- 
secutive stages,  from  fetichism  —  its  first  manifestation 


122     Intellectual  Vigor  and  Activity  in  the  Ministry. 

—  up  to  the  plane  of  monotheistic  worship.  This  de- 
velopment has  been  the  work  of  science  :  the  lower  and 
cruder  faiths  yielding  to  the  higher  and  more  elaborate 
under  the  compulsory  pressure  of  advancing  knowledge. 
If  it  be  strange  that  a  truly  great  mind,  claiming,  in  an 
extraordinary  degree,  the  faculty  of  accurate  and  pro- 
found thought,  should  take  refuge  in  a  psychology  which 
so  utterly  fails  to  account  for  religious  emotions,  it  is 
still  more  so,  that  such  a  mind  should,  with  vast  pains, 
build  up  a  theory  of  the  development  of  those  emotions 
which  is  contradicted  by  indisputable  facts  of  history. 
It  is  undeniable  that  the  Old  Testament,  regarded  simply 
as  history,  is  the  record  of  a  monotheistic  worship  reach- 
ing back  to  the  dawn  of  the  historic  ages ;  and,  to  say 
the  least,  the  evidences  bearing  on  the  subject  justify 
the  belief  that  it  is  quite  as  probable  that  all  lower  and 
grosser  religions  are  corruptions  and  degradations  of  the 
higher  and  purer,  as  that  the  latter  are  developments 
from  the  former. 

Were  we  not  living  in  the  midst  of  the  experiment, 
and  witnessing  daily  its  increasing  success,  we  might 
think  it  impossible  that  the  "  New  Philosophy  "  of  Spen- 
cer should  meet  with  favor  among  the  more  thoughtful 
classes,  or  be  regarded  by  any  as  a  formidable  antago- 
nist to  the  Christian  religion.  It  declares  that  the  Infi- 
nite and  Absolute  is  utterly  inconceivable  by  us ;  that  it 
cannot  become  the  material  of  human  knowledge ;  that 
to  beings  like  us,  whose  consciousness  is  cast  in  the 
moulds  of  time  and  space,  it  is  unthinkable,  unknown 
and  unknowable :  and  yet  it  does  not  hesitate  to  tell  us 
with  dogmatic  assurance   and  almost  logical  precision 


Intellectual  Vigor  and  Activity  in  the  Ministry.     123 

what  the  Infinite  and  Absolute  cannot  do  or  become  in 
its  relations  to  us.  It  says  that  our  belief  in  an  omni- 
present and  eternal  cause  of  the  universe  has  a  higher 
warrant  than  any  other  belief,  —  that  the  existence  of 
such  a  cause  is  the  most  certain  of  all  certainties ;  and 
then  asserts  that  we  can  have  no  knowledge  whatever 
of  its  attributes, —  that  it  is  absolutely  beyond  any  possi- 
ble human  cognition.  It  puts  forth  a  statement  of  the 
ultimate  cause,  which,  while  affirming  our  utter  inability 
to  conceive  of  its  mode  of  existence  or  of  its  character, 
compels  us  by  a  logical  and  moral  necessity  to  assign  it 
at  least  six  attributes,  and  these  the  very  ones  which 
form  the  staples  of  natural  and  revealed  religion;  viz., 
being,  causal  energy,  omnipotence,  eternity,  wisdom,  and 
love.  It  traces  the  feeling  and  need  of  religion  to  a 
certain  awe  arising  from  the  habitual  contact  of  the 
mind  of  the  race  with  the  unknown  and  unknowable. 
But  surely  what  is  altogether  unknown  and  unknowable 
to  the  race  as  a  whole  cannot  impress  itself  on  the 
consciousness  of  an  individual.  What  is  absolutely  un- 
known and  unknowable  is  to  us  as  though  it  did  not 
exist.  No  sentiment  of  awe  or  of  any  thing  else  can 
arise  from  that  of  which  we  are  entirely  unconscious. 
Again,  this  "  New  Philosophy  "  admits  the  existence  of 
an  ultimate  cause,  and  admits  the  manifestation  of  this 
ultimate  cause  in  effects  the  sum-total  of  which  is  the 
universe :  and  yet  it  tells  us  that  we  cannot  reason  from 
the  effects  to  the  cause ;  that  the  work  reveals  nothing 
as  to  the  qualities  of  the  workman ;  that  in  the  law  we 
see  nothing  of  the  nature  of  the  lawgiver ;  that  "  by 
the  things  which  are  made  "  we  can  know  nothing  of 


124     Intellectual  Vigor  and  Activity  in  the  Ministry. 

"  the  invisible  things  "  of  the  maker :  that  order,  intelli- 
gence, beneficence,  beauty  in  the  creation  prove  nothing 
whatever  as  to  the  true  character  of  the  creator.  Such 
are  some  of  the  weaknesses  of  the  "  New  Philosophy." 
Like  many  systems  gone  before  it,  it  will  have  its  day, 
and  then  take  its  place  in  the  great  gallery  of  specu- 
lative curiosities.  The  grounds  on  which  it  menaces 
theology  mth  expulsion  from  the  fellowship  of  science 
are  futile.  They  are  at  war  with  the  very  elements  and 
conditions  of  valid  thinking  on  any  subject.  The  funda- 
mentals of  natural  theology  can  no  more  be  denied  than 
the  main  facts  and  affirmations  of  our  own  consciousness. 
Both  are  known  by  direct  intuition  ;  and  we  cannot  sup- 
pose there  is  any  uncertainty  concerning  them,  with- 
out supposing  that  certainty  is  impossible  in  any  thing. 
"  The  only  ground,  in  fact,  on  which  the  validity  of  the 
inductions  and  intuitions  of  natural  theology  can  be 
assailed,  is  that  of  the  relativity  of  knowledge ;  and  to 
make  the  assault  seem  successful,  the  position  of  the 
assailant  must  be  taken  so  far  to  the  left  as  to  leave  him 
in  utter  and  complete  scepticism,  doubting  the  axioms 
of  mathematics,  and  uncertain  of  his  own  existence." 
Just  this  is  the  position  of  the  "New  Philosophy"  of 
Herbert  Spencer;  and,  whatever  others  have  done  to 
expose  its  fallacies,  the  students  and  teachers  of  theology 
have  not  been  barren  or  idle  in  the  same  task. 

But  from  this  I  turn  to  notice  a  formidable  adversary 
of  theology,  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  world  of  specu- 
lative thought.  *  I  refer  to  the  various  schools  whose 
common  foundation  is  subjective  idealism,  or  the  alleged 
supremacy  of  the  individual  consciousness,  or  the  suf- 


Intellectual  Vigor  and  Activity  in  the  Ministry.     125 

ficiency  of  reason  as  the  test  and  measure  of  truth,  or 
the  infallibility  of  the  intuitions  of  man's  rational  na- 
ture, —  all  only  different  expressions  of  the  same  thing. 
Now,  as  characteristics  of  a  certain  tendency  of  thought, 
we  find  these,  in  one  shape  or  another,  re-appearing 
at  nearly  all  points  in  the  line  of  recent  speculation ; 
beginning  —  not  to  go  too  far  back  —  with  Lessing 
and  Kant ;  cropping  out  most  influentially  in  Christian 
Baur  and  the  Tubingen  school  of  criticism  ;  attaining  a 
still  more  luxuriant  growth  in  such  thinkers  as  Strauss, 
Theodore  Parker,  Francis  Newman,  and  Renan ;  and 
culminating  in  the  sceptical  coterie  of  the  "  Westminster 
Review."  Starting,  as  they  do,  with  substantially  the 
same  premises,  these  idealists,  intuitionalists,  rationalists 
(the  name  is  of  little  consequence),  arrive  at  substan- 
tially the  same  conclusions,  however  they  may  diverge 
on  minor  points.  These  conclusions  are,  in  the  main, 
utterly  subversive  both  of  the  matter  and  the  form  of 
Christian  theology.  It  is  impossible  to  accept  them,  and 
retain  any  respect  for  theology  as  a  science,  or  for  theo- 
logians as  men  of  high  intellectual  character.  As  the 
necessity  and  authority  of  revelation  are  denied;  as 
inspiration  is  only  a  higher  form  of  the  reason  ;  as  it  is 
quite  practicable  to  construct  God  out  of  the  ideas  of 
consciousness,  and  to  find  the  surest  revelation  of  truth 
in  individual  insight ;  as  the  current  faith  of  the  time 
is  not  only  the  transient  expression  of  the  soul's  wants 
and  worship,  but  the  ever-changing  utterance  of  the 
soul's  aspirations  to  realize  an  ideal  which  the  progress 
of  the  ages  is  constantly  mending,  —  as  all  these  things 
are  so,  what  else  can  be  done  with  religion  except  to 


126     Intellectual  Vigor  and  Activity  in  the  Ministry. 

resolve  it  into  ethics,  or  with  faith  except  to  absorb  it 
in  moral  sentiment,  or  with  Christian  dogma  except  to 
merge  it  in  philosophy,  or  with  Christian  theology 
generally,  except  to  banish  it  out  of  sight  as  an  obsolete 
tradition?  And  such,  in  fact,  is  the  disposition  made  of 
theology,  as  an  object  of  thought,  by  all  the  affiliated 
branches  of  this  school.  Whether,  then,  we  consider 
opinions  which  rely  upon  sensation  as  the  ultimate  test 
of  truth,  as  in  the  case  of  positivism  in  all  its  various 
modifications  from  that  of  Comte  to  that  of  Herbert 
Spencer ;  or  upon  the  metaphysical  conception  of  the 
unknowableness  of  the  Infinite  ;  or  opinions  which  rely 
upon  the  faculty  of  insight  as  the  sufficient  basis  of 
authority,  as  in  the  case  of  the  various  phases  of  the 
subjective  school,  —  the  result  is  the  same  :  the  former 
in  tending  towards  atheism,  and  the  latter  in  its  drift 
toward  pantheism,  or  naturalism,  wherein  no  chance  for 
interposition  by  miraculous  revelation  is  retained,  alike 
cut  away  the  very  ground  of  theological  science. 

But,  emerging  from  these  regions  of  speculative  in- 
quiry to  the  solid  ground  of  physical  science,  we  find 
here  an  influence  quite  as  hostile  to  the  claims  of  the- 
ology. The  attitude  in  this  regard  of  physical  science, 
as  defined  by  some  of  its  most  popular  exponents,  is 
too  familiar  to  require  either  comment  or  illustration. 
Flushed  with  the  sense  of  its  alleged  as  well  as  real 
triumphs,  in  late  years,  it  has  fallen  into  a  tone  of 
almost  insolent  contempt  at  once  for  the  matter  and 
methods  of  theology.  Putting  on  the  air  of  conceded 
superiority,  it  has  borne  itself  as  though  theology  were 
the  common  repository  of  the  dreams  and  fables  and 


Intellectual  Vigor  and  Activity  in  the  Ministry.     127 

idols  of  the  race,  thrown  up  to  the  surface  by  the  human 
mind  in  the  periods  of  its  ignorance  and  immaturity, 
and  as  though  itself  alone  dealt  with  the  only  knowledge 
worth  having.  Because,  in  the  progress  of  discovery,  it 
has  taken  some  things  out  of  the  province  of  the  super- 
natural, and  carried  them  over  to  the  domain  of  uni- 
versal law,  thus  step  by  step  narrowing,  as  is  alleged, 
the  field  of  theological  inquiry,  it  argues  that,  in  due 
course  of  time,  it  will  remove  all  the  fences  enclosing 
that  field,  and  finally  take  possession  of  the  field  itself, 
thus  consigning  theology,  as  a  science,  to  irrevocable 
bankruptcy,  and  leaving  behind  nothing  but  its  name  to 
keep  alive  in  the  records  of  the  world's  thought  the 
memory  of  its  once  undisputed  sway. 

I  cannot  leave  this  branch  of  my  subject  without  a 
few  words  on  certain  schools  of  thinkers  within  the 
Church,  some  of  them  bearing  her  Orders,  or  holding 
chau's  in  her  great  seats  of  learning.  It  is  a  sad  thing 
to  say,  but  it  is  nevertheless  true,  that  theology  as  a 
science,  seeking  to  hold  its  own  amid  the  cross-currents 
of  modern  thought,  has  received  its  worst  wounds,  not 
from  its  avowed  enemies,  but  in  the  house  of  its 
friends.  There  has  been  among  us  a  class  of  minds 
both  learned  and  influential,  who,  in  their  efforts  to 
reconstruct  or  modify  theology  with  a  view  to  its  better 
adaptation  to  the  altered  tone  of  thought  in  our  time, 
have,  in  one  way  or  another,  loosened  its  hold  on  the 
general  mind,  and  thus  afforded  aid  and  comfort  to  its 
professed  adversaries.  It  would  be  difficult,  if  not  im- 
possible, to  give  a  just  impression  of  this  class  of  minds 
without  some  notice  of  the  origin  and  history  of  their 


128     Intellectual  Vigor  and  Activity  in  the  Ministry. 

characteristic  tendencies.  The  general  type  of  thought 
which  they  represent  began  with  Coleridge,  through 
whom  filtered  into  the  English  theological  mind  many 
of  the  peculiarities  of  German  speculation  and  criticism. 
Coleridge  started  with  the  conviction  that  religion  lacked 
a  philosophical  basis.  He  attempted  to  supply  one  dif- 
ferent from  that  of  the  last  century.  He  found  it  in 
those  intuitions  of  reason  which  were  supposed  to  rise 
above  Scripture  and  tradition,  and  to  form  the  ground 
and  measure  of  both.  He  came  upon  the  stage  at  what 
he  deemed  a  critical  period.  In  politics,  literature,  and 
religion,  there  were  manifest  symptoms  of  a  determina- 
tion to  break  away  from  the  past.  On  all  sides  were 
the  signs  of  impending  revolution.  It  was  his  desire  to 
stand  by  the  ancient  inheritance  of  truth,  and  at  the 
same  time  to  make  way  for  all  that  should  be  valuable 
in  the  later  acquisitions  of  knowledge.  In  reviewing  the 
past  beliefs  of  mankind,  he  saw  much  truth  and  some 
error  in  all.  He  undertook  to  preserve  the  former,  and 
eliminate  the  latter.  But  some  sure,  comprehensive 
guide  was  indispensable  to  the  performance  of  so  grave 
and  difficult  a  task.  He  found  this  guide,  or  believed 
that  he  did,  in  a  certain  faculty  of  the  human  mind 
which  he  called  "  the  impersonal  or  intuitional  reason," 
the  organ  in  man  which  interprets  the  absolute  truth, 
whether  in  the  form  of  the  true,  or  the  good,  or  the  beau- 
tiful, —  that  eternal  reality  of  life  and  being  after  which 
all  systems  had  searched,  and  for  which  all  earnest 
spirits  had  yearned.  With  this  for  his  pilot,  he  set  out 
on  his  voyage  over  the  wide  ocean  of  existing  thought. 
There  was  nothing,  in  Coleridge's  method,  of  the  older 


Intellectual  Vigor  and  Activity  in  the  Ministry.     129 

rationalism.  He  magnified  rather  than  pared  down  the 
supernatural  in  Christianity.  He  explained  the  divine 
mysteries  by  raising  the  mind  to  a  height  where  they 
ceased  to  be  mysteries.  He  did  not  depress  revelation  to 
the  ordinary  plane  of  the  intellect,  but  strove,  however 
vainly,  to  elevate  the  intellect  to  a  level  with  the  plane 
of  revelation.  It  was  in  the  effort  to  do  this  that  he 
was  led  to  define  inspiration  as  only  an  elevated  form  of 
"  the  reason,"  and  so  to  hatch  a  whole  brood  of  errors  in 
the  field  of  Biblical  interpretation  and  theological  study. 
His  system  —  if  system  it  can  be  called  —  drew,  as  is 
well  known,  upon  the  Neo-Platonic  philosophy  of  Alex- 
andria, and  borrowed  still  more  largely  from  the  think- 
ing of  Kant,  Jacobi,  and  Schelling ;  a  fact  which  of 
itself  might  —  had  it  been  clearly  understood  —  have 
enabled  his  contemporaries  to  forecast  the  tendencies 
and  ultimate  fruits  of  his  method  of  inquiry,  now  so 
familiar  to  the  present  generation  in  the  teachings  of 
the  disciples  who  sat  at  his  feet.  The  movement  of  free 
thought  in  English  theology  abreast  of  which  we  stand  is 
the  resultant  of  the  Alexandrian  and  German  elements 
of  speculation  which  met,  mingled,  and  crystallized  in 
the  genius  of  Coleridge.  Its  tendency,  to  use  the  well- 
chosen  words  of  another,!  is  "to  require  that  the  human 
soul  shall  apprehend  divine  mysteries  intellectually,  as 
well  as  feel  their  saving  power  emotionally  ;  the  reduc- 
tion of  inspiration  theologically,  as  well  as  psychologi- 
cally, to  an  elevated  but  natural  state  of  the  human 
consciousness ;  the  inclination  to  regard  the  work  of 
Christ  as  that  of  the  divine  Teacher  of  humanity,  and 
1  Farrar's  Critical  History  of  Free  Thought. 


130     Intellectual  Vigor  and  Activity  in  the  Ministry. 

human  history  as  the  longing  for  such  a  divine  voice ; 
the  description  of  the  work  of  Christ  as  a  divuie  mani- 
festation of  a  reconciliation  vs^hich  previously  existed,  in- 
stead of  being  the  mode  of  effecting  it,  —  all  of  which, 
as  they  are  corollaries  from  the  philosophy  of  the  Neo- 
Platonists,  so  they  find  their  parallel  in  the  school  of 
the  Alexandrian  fathers." 

Now,  the  drift  thus  described  not  only  pares  off  and 
abrades  the  edg^s  of  dogmatic  theology,  but  strikes  at 
its  very  core.  It  works  not  from  the  outer  rim  toward 
the  centre,  but  begins  at  the  centre,  and  spreads  like  a 
subtle  poison  in  all  directions.  Its  influence  is  appar- 
ent in  much  of  the  most  taking  literature  of  the  time. 
It  has  spoken  mildly  through  Maurice  and  the  elder 
Arnold,  and  Charles  Kingsley  up  to  within  ten  years 
of  his  death,  and  then  through  Dean  Stanley  and  the 
growing  school  he  represented.  But  it  has  made  itself 
heard  in  a  more  resolute  and  aggressive  tone  in  most 
of  the  authors  of  "  Essays  and  Reviews,"  and  with  espe- 
cial boldness  in  the  writings  of  Professor  Jowett  and 
Matthew  Arnold.  In  all  of  them,  though  with  varying 
degree,  may  be  discovered  the  same  ear-marks  of  the 
system  whose  historic  lineage  was  revived  in  England  by 
Coleridge.  They  are  not  in  all  respects  mutual  in- 
dorsers ;  but  there  is  an  evident  sympathy  among  them 
all  with  the  effort  to  remove  or  drive  in  the  existing 
boundaries  of  dogmatic  religion.  The  more  pronounced, 
such  as  Professor  Jowett  and  Matthew  Arnold,  repudiate 
all  disguise,  and  tell  us  plainly  that  God  gave  his  Son  not 
to  reconcile  God  to  man,  but  man  to  God ;  not  to  pur- 
chase Divine  mercy  for  man  by  the  blood  of  the  Cross, 


Intellectual  Vigor  and  Activity  in  the  Ministry.     131 

out  to  make  way  in  man's  heai't  for  the  spontaneous  flow 
of  that  mercy ;  that  Christ  is  to  be  accepted  as  a  Teacher 
and  a  King,  but  not  as  a  Priest ;  that  the  main  purpose 
of  Christ  was  to  work  out  a  higher  type  of  life,  not  a 
scheme  of  redemption ;  that  the  dogmatic  is  but  the  ever- 
changing  shell  of  the  moral  element  of  Christianity ; 
and  that,  looking  forward  to  the  rehgion  of  the  future, 
Christianity  can  become  such  only  as  it  will  cease  to  be 
the  rehgion  of  form  and  dogma,  and  become  the  highest 
type  of  ethics.  It  need  scarcely  be  added,  that,  under 
the  influence  of  such  views,  the  very  foundations  of  the- 
ology as  a  definite  and  methodical  body  of  divine  truth 
are  resolved  into  quicksand.  It  is  no  longer  a  science, 
but  a  nomadic  speculation,  half  real  and  half  visionary, 
according  as  each  age  may  see  in  it  more  of  truth  or 
more  of  falsehood. 

But  finally,  in  order  to  complete  the  list  of  influences 
conspiring  to  degrade  theological  science  from  its  hered- 
itai'y  dignity,  I  must  not  omit  the  agency  of  the  litera- 
ture of  scepticism.  This  opens  up  too  wide  a  field  to 
be  traversed  or  even  outlined  here.  No  one,  familiar 
with  the  higher  reading  of  the  million,  needs  to  be 
reminded  how  largely  it  has  been  flavored  not  so  much 
with  the  logic  as  with  the  sentiment  of  unbelief;  nor 
how  much  of  its  graver  and  more  scholarly  thought- 
fulness  has  been  furnished  by  such  minds  as  Carlyle 
and  Emerson,  Buckle  and  Lecky,  Michelet,  Renan,  and 
Taine,  whose  surpassing  ability  and.  culture,  combined 
with  the  immense  popular  attraction  of  the  special 
themes  to  which  their  labors  have  been  devoted,  have 
won  for  any  thing  they  might  say,  not  merely  the  atten- 


132     Intellectual  Vigor  and  Activity  in  the  Ministry. 

tion,  but  very  generally  the  assent,  of  the  masses. 
When  such  writers,  in  elaborate  ei5says,  habitually  slur 
and  scorn  the  most  learned  and  strongly  reasoned  apol- 
ogies for  Christian  dogma  produced  by  the  theological 
mind  of  the  day,  what  else  than  a  settled  temper  of 
unfriendliness  toward  Christian  theology  can  be  looked 
for,  not  only  amid  the  numerous  company  of  copyists 
and  parasites  that  hang  upon  their  path,  but  among  the 
vast  audience  whom  they  address  in  Europe  and 
America  ? 

Such,  then,  are  the  adversaries  against  which  the 
Clergy,  as  the  special  organs  and  conservators  of  theol- 
ogy, have  been  called  to  contend.  With  these  in  our 
eye,  we  can  judge  somewhat  of  the  quality  and-  extent 
of  the  intellectual  activity  which  has  been  exhibited  in 
theological  inquiry  and  defence  during  the  present  gen- 
eration. It  will  be  quite  impossible  for  me,  in  this 
connection,  to  follow  out,  or  even  to  name,  all  the  lines 
of  investigation  which  have  been  pursued  within  the 
wide  field  over  which  this  activity  has  been  diiFused. 
To  do  so  with  any  completeness,  would  require  at  least  a 
summary  of  all  the  processes  and  results  of  the  sacred 
learning  of  recent  times.  It  will  be  quite  sufficient 
for  my  purpose,  to  advert  only  to  those  efforts  of  the 
theological  mind  which  furnish  special  illustrations  of 
its  readiness  and  ability  to  deal  with  the  more  salient 
questions  of  the  day,  so  far  as  they  affect  the  claims  or 
embarrass  the  progress  of  Christianity.  But,  before 
proceeding  further  in  this  branch  of  the  subject,  it  may 
be  well  to  notice  briefly  two  objections  urged,  with  some 
frequency  and  spirit,  against  these  efforts. 


Intellectual  Vigor  and  Activity  in  the  Ministry.     133 

(1)  It  has  been  alleged,  that  they  evmce  little  original 
constructive  power  ;  that  they  are  mostly  explanatory  of 
material  already  in  existence,  or  apologetic  as  against  the 
attacks  of  modern  criticism  and  discovery  which  forced 
the  Clergy  into  a  defensive  attitude.  The  answer  is  easy. 
The  theological  activity  of  the  time  has  been  thrown,  as 
common-sense  required,  in  the  direction  where  it  was 
most  needed.  And  yet,  though  largely  given  to  defen- 
sive work,  it  has  not  been  lacking  in  constructive  energy. 
It  has  not  undertaken,  as  a  mere  intellectual  exercise,  to 
resolve  the  existing  theology  into  its  elements,  and  out 
of  them  to  build  a  new  theology.  Such  an  attempt 
would  have  been  superfluous,  in  the  presence  of  other 
work  more  imperatively  demanded.  But  it  has  re- 
examined to  its  foundations  every  doctrine,  every  prin- 
ciple of  theology,  which  the  altered  tone  of  the  age 
rendered  it  needful  to  re-state  with  more  clearness,  or 
to  guard  against  modern  objections.  As  examples,  take 
the  doctrines  of  the  Incarnation  and  the  Atonement; 
or  of  the  Church,  the  Ministry,  the  Sacraments,  the 
Scriptural  and  primitive  theory  of  worship ;  or,  which 
has  been  the  chief  battle-ground,  the  authenticity  and 
genuineness  of  the  Holy  Scriptures.  On  each  of  these, 
to  name  no  others,  almost  a  new  literature  has  been 
created ;  and  if  little  absolutely  original  has  been  added 
to  the  previous  treatment  of  them,  certainly  no  resource 
of  historic  induction,  or  logic,  or  biblical  learning,  or 
general  knowledge,  has  been  neglected  in  their  defence 
or  their  exposition.  Eighteen  hundred  years  of  thought 
and  teaching,  on  these  and  kindred  subjects,  by  minds 
as  illustrious  for  power  and  erudition  as  any  to  be  found 


134     Intellectual  Vigor  and  Activity  in  the  Ministry. 

in  the  past,  have,  indeed,  left  Httle  room  for  positive 
discovery,  and  still  less  for  absolute  originality  of  han- 
dling. And  yet  it  may  be  doubted  whether  any  period 
in  ecclesiastical  history  has  witnessed  a  more  comprehen- 
sive grasp  of  the  subject-matter  of  theology,  or  a  more 
complete  mastery  of  its  complex  relations  with  other 
departments  of  inquiry.  It  is  too  soon  to  pass  upon  the 
theological  work  of  the  last  thirty  or  forty  years.  The 
din  and  dust  of  the  conflict  still  raging  make  it  impos- 
sible to  correctly  estimate  its  value ;  but  I  have  little 
doubt  that  minds  have  flourished  among  us  whom  the 
judgment  of  the  future  will  deem  not  unworthy  of 
companionship  with  the  best  that  have  been  produced 
in  the  most  energetic  and  fruitful  eras  of  the  Church's 
life. 

(2)  It  is  alleged  that  the  work  done  in  this  field, 
whatever  it  be,  has  not  been  exclusively  clerical  work, 
and  therefore  that  the  Clergy  may  not  claim  all  the 
credit.  In  the  last  fifty  years  there  has  been  an  ex- 
traordinary growth  of  lay  talent  and  learning  in  the 
department  of  theological  study.  Not  a  few  laymen  of 
piety  and  culture  have  engaged  with  vigor  and  success 
in  the  religious  discussions  of  the  time,  or  in  collat- 
eral investigations  having  an  important  bearing  on  the 
issues  raised  in  those  discussions.  Religion  has  abundant 
cause  of  gratitude  for  the  labors  of  such  men  as  the 
Duke  of  Argyle,  Rawlinson,  Henry  Rogers,  St.  George 
Mivart,  and  Urummond,  not  to  add  many  others  whose 
names  will  readily  occur  to  the  reader.  But,  as  with 
other  vocations  demanding  varied  attainments  or  assidu- 
ous and  methodical  study,  so  with  this.     Take  law,  or 


Intellectual  Vigor  and  Activity  in  the  Ministry.     135 

medicine,  history,  or  physical  science.  Each  has  had 
its  professional  corps  exclusively  devoted  to  its  interests, 
and  each  has  had  its  non-professional  auxiUaries  who 
have  stepped  aside  from  other  callings  to  elaborate 
special  questions  falling  within  its  particular  province. 
Discoveries  have  been  made  by  men  who  could  not  be 
called  discoverers  ;  inventions,  by  men  who  did  not  rank 
as  inventors ;  contributions  to  history,  by  those  who  were 
not  historians ;  philosophical,  legal,  and  medical  explora- 
tions, by  those  who  were  neither  philosophers,  lawyers, 
nor  physicians.  And  yet,  very  properly,  we  attribute 
whatever  progress  may  have  been  secured  in  any  one  of 
these  vocations,  to  the  minds  professionally  engaged  in 
them.  The  same  rule,  in  all  fairness,  should  apply 
to  theology,  and  to  those  whose  duty  and  calling  it  is  to 
cultivate  it. 

These  objections  disposed  of,  I  turn  now  to  note  some 
instances  of  a  high  order  of  intellectual  activity  in 
theological  studies. 

I.  These  studies  have  helped  to  establish  on  a  more 
solid  basis  the  claims  of  theology  as  a  science  having  a 
distinct  aim  and  work  in  the  sphere  of  human  knowl- 
edge. They  have  shown  what  it  is  not,  as  well  as  what 
it  is.  It  is  not,  as  some  would  have  it,  merely  an  orderly 
reflection  from  nature,  with  a  divine  glow  on  its  face ; 
nor,  as  others  would  have  it,  a  capacious  wallet  in  which 
are  assorted  and  packed  with  much  learning  and  care 
the  traditional  but  unverified  guesses  of  the  human 
mind  on  the  problems  of  being  and  destiny.  Sacred 
polemics  and  Christian  evidences  fall  within,  but  do  not 
fill  up,  its  province.     It  is  not  synonymous  with  what  is 


136     Intellectual  Vigor  and  Activity  in  the  Ministry. 

vaguely  known  as  "  our  common  Christianity,"  nor  with 
what  schools  of  thought  or  individual  inquirers  may 
gather  from  the  Holy  Scriptures.  It  is  simply  the 
science  of  God,  or  what  we  know  of  God  put  into 
system ;  and  has  its  own  place  and  function  as  positively 
and  definitely  as  any  one  of  the  family  of  sciences  built 
up  by  the  purely  inductive  method.  What  we  know 
of  God  includes  aU  that  outward  nature,  all  that  rea- 
son on  its  moral  as  well  as  its  intellectual  side,  all 
that  revelation,  can  tell  us ;  nay,  more,  all  that  can 
be  gathered  from  the  history  of  man,  whether  regarded 
as  the  simple  record  of  his  searches  after  God,  or  as  a 
testimony  to  the  reality  of  the  wants  that  compelled  him 
to  be  a  seeker.  If  what  we  know  or  can  know  of  the 
heavenly  bodies  is  the  material  of  astronomy;  if  what 
we  know  or  can  know  of  the  crust  of  the  earth  is  the 
material  of  geology :  so  what  we  know  or  can  know  of 
God  is  the  subject-matter  of  theology.  And,  as  has 
been  already  remarked,  it  may  be  doubted  whether  any 
past  age  has  excelled  the  present  either  in  the  quality 
or  the  amount  of  the  intellectual  force  with  which  this 
subject-matter  has  been  handled.  This  force  has  been 
applied  in  many  ways,  but  conspicuously  in  the  follow- 
ing. 

(1)  In  proving,  by  direct  argument  or  by  necessary 
inference,  that  theology  meets  every  test  of  a  veritable 
science :  — 

(a)  As  to  the  reality  and  genuineness  of  its  sources 
of  knowledge ; 

(h)  As  to  the  validity  of  the  premises  drawn  from 
those  sources ; 


Intellectual  Vigor  and  Activity  in  the  Ministry.     137 

(c)  As  to  the  logical  soundness  of  its  reasonings  from 
those  premises ; 

(</)  As  to  its  permanence  and  continuity  as  a  depart- 
ment of  human  thought ; 

[e)  As  to  the  universaUty  of  its  fundamental  principles, 
and  of  the  ethical  conclusions  deduced  from  them ; 

(/)  As  to  the  unsurpassed  intelhgence  devoted,  in 
every  age,  to  its  cultivation. 

(2)  In  proving  that  theology  is  not  only  a  science, 
but  that  it  is  in  reality  the  foremost  of  sciences :  — 

{a)  Because,  from  the  subject  with  which  it  deals,  it 
is  not  so  much  one  sort  of  knowledge  as  the  condition 
of  all  knowledge.  For,  if  there  be  that  behind  nature 
which  Christianity  reveals,  and  which,  in  some  form,  all 
healthy  thought  admits  without  a  revelation ;  then  what 
we  know  of  that  power  or  that  personality  must  condition 
all  that  we  can  know  inductively  or  metaphysically  of 
its  operations,  or  of  the  phenomena  they  produce  in  the 
world  of  sense. 

(h)  Because,  if  it  be  and  have  what  it  claims,  it 
supplies  a  living  root  to  all  other  sciences,  by  exhibiting 
to  them  the  life-power  that  pervades  all  of  which  they 
take  cognizance. 

(c)  Because  it  is  part  of  its  rightful  function,  to  ex- 
plain the  other  sciences  in  their  ultimate  meanings  each 
to  each,  and  each  to  all  combined,  and  to  correct  their 
exorbitances  and  defects,  individually  considered,  by  the 
unity  and  equilibrium  of  the  whole  body  of  knowledge, 
of  which  each  science,  taken  by  itself,  is  but  a  fractional 
part ;  and  of  which  theology,  as  the  science  of  God,  is 
and  must  be  the  central  light  to  the  full  extent  that  it 


138     Intellectual  Vigor  and  Activity  in  the  Ministry. 

is  able  to  interpret  by  the  voice  of  nature,  of  reason,  of 
revelation,  His  eternal  will,  infinite  wisdom,  and  bound- 
less love.  For,  just  what  history  would  be  if  it  left  out 
the  volitions  of  man  in  its  summaries  and  explanations 
of  events,  —  that,  if.  there  be  a  God,  all  science  is  that 
merges  not  its  last  generalization  in  the  effulgence  of 
His  being,  and  traces  not  its  ultimate  root  to  His  life- 
giving  power. 

II.  These  studies  have  done  much  toward  solving  the 
problem  of  the  limits  of  human  thought  on  the  subject- 
matter  of  religion,  —  a  problem  which  antedates  and 
underlies  every  other  in  the  field  of  religious  inquiry.  I 
do  not  say  that  they  have  solved  this  problem  to  the 
satisfaction  of  all  schools  of  thought,  or  even  that  the 
result  they  have  arrived  at  commands  the  assent  of  any 
set  of  thinkers  outside  of  the  pale  of  theology.  What  I 
affirm  is,  that,  in  their  handling  of  the  problem,  they 
have  kept  abreast  of  the  deepest  and  subtlest  philo- 
sophical reasoning  of  the  day. 

The  terms  of  the  problem  are  these.  Given  a  pro- 
fessed and  duly  authenticated  revelation,  is  the  human 
mind  competent  to  sit  in  final  judgment  on  its  contents  ? 
Can  the  human  mind  be  so  far  exalted,  or  revelation  be 
so  far  depressed  without  losing  its  character,  as  to  confer 
such  a  power  upon  man  I  If  we  answer  in  the  affirma- 
tive, then  we  must  admit  that  the  finite  may  sit  in  judg- 
ment upon  the  infinite,  the  relative  upon  the  absolute ; 
and,  if  we  admit  this,  then  it  follows,  that,  in  the  sphere 
of  religion,  God  may  be  compressed  into  the  measure  of 
man,  or,  which  amounts  to  the  same  thing,  that  man 
may  be  expanded  into  God ;  or,  to  adopt  a  formula  of 


Intellectual  Vigor  and  Activity  in  the  Ministry.     139 

advanced  German  speculation,  that  Christ  —  in  whom, 
according  to  revelation,  dwelt  the  fulness  of  the  God- 
head bodily  —  is  only  man  sublimated  into  deity  by  the 
religious  consciousness.  Now,  there  are  but  two  ways  in 
which  it  is  possible  for  the  human  mind  to  bridge  the 
gulf  which  separates  the  Absolute  from  the  relative,  the 
Infinite  from  the  finite.  The  one  is  by  the  pure  intel- 
lect, which  is  forced  to  shape  all  its  conceptions  under 
the  limitations . of  time  and  space;  the  other  is  by  the 
intuitions  of  the  moral  reason  or  the  spiritual  conscious- 
ness, which,  as  they  are  capable  of  comprehending  the 
immutability  of  moral  distinctions,  and  appreciating 
what  is  eternal  in  the  ideas  and  laws  of  moral  obligation, 
constitute  the  only  faculty  of  human  nature  which  can 
rise  above  the  limitations  that  condition  all  the  thinking 
of  the  logical  intellect.  Now,  the  utter  and  hopeless 
failure  of  the  first  method  —  that  of  the  speculative 
reason  —  has  been  admitted  by  most  metaphysicians 
since  Kant,  whose  analysis  of  the  functions  of  the  pure 
reason  has  been  regarded  by  nearly  all  subsequent  schools 
of  thought  as  the  final  settlement  of  the  boundaries  of 
human  intelligence,  in  its  relations  to  the  Absolute. 
But  if  philosophers  have  proved  the  impossibility  of 
mapping  out  the  divine  nature,  and  discovering  or  con- 
structing its  attributes  by  any  process  of  the  intellect  — 
that  is,  by  any  scheme  of  logical  induction  or  deduction  ; 
so  thinkers  in  the  interest  of  revelation  have  proved, 
over  and  over,  that  if  it  be  not  impossible,  in  the  nature 
of  things,  for  the  human  mind  to  elaborate  a  satisfactory 
conception  of  Deity  by  its  faculty  of  moral  reason  or  spirit- 
ual insight,  yet,  that,  in  point  of  fact,  it  has  never  done 


140     Intellectual  Vigor  and  Activity  in  the  Ministry. 

so.  Nay,  more  :  they  have  demonstrated  psychologically 
that  it  is  impossible  to  secure  any  satisfactory  agreement 
as  to  the  number,  the  quality,  and  the  range  of  those 
intuitions  of  the  moral  consciousness  of  man,  which  have 
been  so  much  relied  upon  by  some  as  competent  to 
unveil  the  foundation  principles  of  religion,  and  thus 
to  supersede  the  necessity  and  contradict  the  fact  of  a 
revelation.  And  then,  still  further,  they  have  shown 
by  the  undeniable  testimony  of  history,  that  those  intui- 
tions, under  all  grades  of  knowledge  and  culture,  have 
proved  to  be  little  better  than  the  ignis-fatuus  of  the 
religious  aspkations  of  humanity,  ever  keeping  alive  the 
desire  to  attain  to  the  Christian  conception  of  God,  but 
ever  powerless  to  realize  it.  But  if  such  be  the  limits 
of  human  thought  in  the  sphere  of  religious  truth,  as 
shown  by  history  and  by  analysis  of  the  human  con- 
sciousness, then  certain  consequences  of  vast  moment 
inevitably  follow.  If  man  cannot,  intellectually  or  mor- 
ally, arrive  at  a  philosophy  of  the  Infinite,  he  cannot 
find  within  himself  an  infallible  criterion  of  religious 
truth ;  and,  if  he  have  not  such  infallible  criterion 
within  himself,  then  all  his  reasonings  on  religious 
truth,  the  substance  of  which  is  God's  voice  speaking 
through  finite  symbols,  are  exposed  to  error  ;  and,  if 
this  be  so,  then  it  follows  that  human  reason,  though  not 
without  its  necessary  office  and  work  in  religion,  is  not 
entitled  to  sit  in  final  judgment  upon  all  the  contents  of 
a  duly  authenticated  revelation.  As  matter  of  fact  and 
experience,  the  criterion  built  up  out  of  the  intuitions 
of  the  moral  sense  in  man  finds  itself  at  sea  the  moment 
it  attempts  to  account  for  many  of  the  admitted  phe- 


Intellectual  Vigor  and  Activity  in  the  Ministry.     141 

nomena  in  the  course  of  God's  natural  providence  ;  e.g., 
the  infliction  of  physical  suffering,  the  adversity  of  the 
good,  the  prosperity  of  the  wicked,  the  crimes  of  the 
guilty  involving  the  misery  of  the  innocent,  the  tardy 
appearance  and  partial  distribution  of  moral  and  religious 
knowledge  in  the  world.  Now,  these  are  facts  recon- 
cilable, though  we  know  not  how,  with  the  infinite 
goodness  of  God.  But  they  are  facts  which  bafile  and 
silence  any  criterion  that  can  be  erected  by  the  human 
mind ;  and,  if  this  be  so,  what  possible  right  has  any 
human  being  to  assume  that  a  criterion  which  thus 
signally  fails  to  account  for  what  certainly  happens  in 
the  order  of  nature  can  be  applied  unqualifiedly  and 
imiversally  to  the  statements  of  revelation?  Such, 
substantially,  has  been  the  process  and  the  result  of  the 
reasoning  of  the  theological  mind  on  the  great  question 
of  the  limits  of  human  thought  in  this  direction. 

The  following  is  another  view  of  the  same  question. 
There  is  in  man  a  sense  of  the  Infinite  and  Absolute. 
Precisely  how  it  works  in  bridging  the  gulf  between  the 
conditioned  and  the  unconditioned ;  whether  it  exists 
simply  as  feeling  or  intuition,  or  as  a  mental  conception 
or  cognition  capable  of  expressing  itself  under  the  ne- 
cessary laws  of  thought:  is  still,  and  probably  always 
must  be,  an  open  question.  Between  these  two  views 
the  current  metaphysical  thought  of  our  time  is  about 
equally  divided.  If  we  accept  the  former,  we  must 
confine  human  thought  on  the  deep  things  of  God  within 
a  small  circle.  If  we  accept  the  latter,  the  limits  of 
thought  are  indefinitely  extended,  and  we  have  to  deal 
with  pretensions  that  in  their  final  development  may  deny 


142     Intellectual  Vigor  and  Activity  in  the  Ministry. 

the  necessity  of  revelation ;  or,  admitting  it  as  a  fact,  may 
invest  man  with  absolute  authority  to  sit  in  judgment  on 
its  contents.  It  is  against  the  former  theory  that  we  have 
to  defend  the  knowableness  of  the  Infinite  and  Eternal, 
and  so  to  give  the  Divine,  whether  in  nature  or  revela- 
tion, a  hold  on  the  human  mind,  and  the  obligations  of 
religion  a  sure  foundation  in  the  soul  of  man  as  well  as 
in  the  will  of  God.  It  is  against  the  latter  theory  that 
we  have  to  assert  the  necessity  of  revelation,  and  the 
subordination  of  human  reason  to  its  authority.  Grant- 
ing the  knowableness  of  God  by  man,  the  question 
arises,  how  far  it  extends,  and  what  are  the  boundaries 
of  our  valid  judgments  on  divine  things. 

It  is  admitted  that  our  thoughts  of  the  Infinite  have 
the  character  of  knowledge ;  and  that,  like  all  other 
knowledge,  it  is  a  relation  between  our  faculties  and 
their  object.  It  is  admitted,  that,  so  far  as  it  goes,  it  is 
real  knowledge,  i.e.,  a  knowledge  of  the  object;  and, 
moreover,  that  it  has  a  certainty  of  its  own,  i.e.,  the 
certainty,  not  oi  formal  demonstration^  but  of  assured  con- 
viction of  truth.  It  is  admitted  that  the  only  alternative 
to  this  is  nescience  with  all  its  negative  results,  —  a 
thing  double-edged,  and  cutting  both  ways.  For,  if  it 
be  true  that  the  infinite  severed  from  all  relation  to  the 
finite  is  unthinkable,  incognizable,  it  is  equally  true  that 
the  finite  apart  from  all  relation  to  the  infinite  is  un- 
thinkable, incognizable.  If  we  cannot  trust  the  veracity 
of  our  faculties  when  dealing  with  the  ground  of  phe- 
nomena, we  cannot  trust  their  veracity  when  they  deal 
with  phenomena  themselves ;  and  so  all  processes  of 
differentiation,  without  which  no  knowledge  is  possible. 


Intellectual  Vigor  and  Activity  in  the  Ministry.     143 

are  alike  untrustworthy.  The  report  of  the  sounding- 
plummet  is  as  sure  in  deep  water  as  in  shallow,  provided 
it  makes  any  report  at  all.  The  necessary  relativity  of 
knowledge  does  not,  therefore,  discharge  knowledge  of 
its  hold  on  the  absolute.  Conditions  in  us  do  not  bar 
all  access  by  us  to  the  unconditioned.  But  if  this  be 
admitted,  then,  among  other  consequences,  it  must  be  ad- 
mitted, to  come  at  once  to  the  point  in  hand,  that,  as 
Bishop  Butler  declares,  "  Reason  can,  and  it  ought  to, 
judge  not  only  of  the  meaning,  but  of  the  morality  and 
evidence,  of  revelation."  ^ 

And  yet  this  admission  must  be  limited  and  qualified 
by  the  facts  of  the  case.  To  treat  it  otherwise,  would 
be  to  convert  revelation  into  a  ladder  whereby  reason 
could  climb  to  a  plane  above  itself,  —  God's  voice  into 
the  mere  prelude  of  some  nobler  harmony  to  be  con- 
structed by  man  himself.  What,  then,  are  the  limita- 
tions of  Bishop  Butler's  statement?  Apart  from  these, 
it  is  sweeping  enough  to  satisfy  the  extremest  rationalist 
who  finds  in  his  own  consciousness  the  highest  possible 
authority  in  all  matters  of  religion,  if  not  the  ultimate 
source  of  religion  itself.  Man,  then,  because  made  in 
the  image  of  God,  may  determine  whether  or  no  the 
voice  that  reaches  him,  taken  as  a  whole,  is  God's  voice  ; 
i.e.,  may  determine  by  its  internal  character  a  true  reve- 
lation from  a  false  one.  But  specifically,  while  he  may, 
for  example,  pass  upon  the  morality  of  revelation,  he 
may  not  pass  upon  the  truth  and  fitness  of  all  doctrines 
of  the  Divine  nature  and  economy  that  constitute  the 
ground,  the  sanction,  and  motive-power  of  that  morality. 

^  Analogy,  part  ii.  chap.  3. 


144     Intellectual  Vigor  and  Activity  in  the  Ministry. 

He  may  apprehend  what  he  cannot  comprehend;  he 
may  accept,  and  be  obliged  to  act  upon,  what  he  can- 
not measure ;  he  may  grasp  as  most  real  and  necessary 
truth  what  he  is  incompetent  to  criticise  and  unable  to 
prove.  As  there  is  a  limit  to  his  knowledge  of  physi- 
cal phenomena,  so  there  is  a  limit  to  his  knowledge  of 
spiritual  phenomena.  He  may  describe  nature's  pro- 
cesses, and  catalogue  its  elements,  its  species,  its  genera, 
without  knowing  why  it  does  what  it  does,  or  wheth- 
er what  it  does  is  done  in  the  best  possible  way.  So 
with  what  he  knows  of  the  economy  of  God's  spiritual 
kingdom.  He  may  judge  of  moral  facts  in  the  Divine 
administration,  but  he  may  not  judge  of  the  whole 
plan  of  which  they  are  only  individual  and  perhaps 
isolated  parts.  The  Incarnation  of  Christ  is  a  fact  and 
also  a  mystery.  He  must  accept  the  fact,  though  he 
cannot  fathom  the  mystery  in  the  sense  of  deciding 
whether  it  was  necessary  or  not,  whether  it  accords  with 
the  internal  and  absolute  subsistence  of  the  Godhead 
or  not,  whether  or  not  it  violates  or  harmonizes  with 
reason.  So  with  the  Atonement  and  the  Resurrection 
of  Christ.  As  facts  they  must  be  accepted,  whether 
above  or  within  the  scope  of  reason.  So,  again,  if  God 
be  revealed  as  Triune,  he  must  deal  with  the  fact  in  its 
practical  consequences,  though  as  a  doctrine  it  refuse 
him  rational  satisfaction.  Revelation,  because  it  is  reve- 
lation, comes  to  him  with  authority ;  and  to  this  author- 
ity, if  he  accept  revelation  at  all,  he  must  bow.  If,  as 
far  as  he  can  go,  all  be  consistent  with  reason,  he  must 
believe  what  lies  beyond  to  be  equally  consistent  with 
reason,  though  he  cannot  see  it  to  be  so. 


Intellectual  Vigor  and  Activity  in  the  Ministry.     145 

Of  late  years  some  metaphysicians  have  assailed  with 
vigor,  if  not  with  success,  Kant's  famous  demonstration 
of  the  impossibility  of  attaining  to  any  positive  cognition 
of  the  absolute  by  any  purely  intellectual  process.  They 
claim  to  have  opened  the  passage  from  the  finite  to  the 
infinite,  which  Kant  had  closed  by  his  iron  logic ;  and, 
as  a  result  of  their  eff'ort,  they  claim  not  only  that  the 
absolute  and  the  infinite  are  cognizable  by  the  human 
mind,  but  that,  inclusively,  all  that  enters  into  religion 
must  be  considered  as  the  legitimate  subject-matter  of 
thought ;  and  consequently  they  have  helped  to  place 
the  intellect  in  an  attitude  of  superiority  to  revelation. 
This  new  phase  of  speculative  thought  has  given  to  ad- 
vanced rationalism  a  new  lease  of  influence,  and  quick- 
ened it  into  fresh  activity.  This  drift,  however,  having 
had  its  day,  will  doubtless  give  place  to  a  re-action; 
and  this  re-action,  when  it  sets  in,  wiU  in  all  probability 
swing  back  toward  a  re-acceptance  of  the  logic  of  Kant 
and  of  the  school  which  he  founded.  Certainly,  while 
asserting  their  right  to  criticise  religion  as  a  whole  and 
each  of  its  constituent  parts,  this  school  has  developed 
no  constructive  power  worthy  of  the  name.  What  they 
would  destroy  in  the  sphere  of  revealed  truth,  they  are 
unable  to  replace  with  any  device  of  their  o\vn.  They 
are  shut  up  to  negations,  and  travel  over  and  over  the 
weary,  fruitless  round  of  abstractions  which  have  proved 
too  vague  and  thin  to  offer  a  solid  footing  to  anybody's 
faith,  or  a  message  of  peace  to  anybody's  mental  or 
spiritual  anxieties.  The  structure  they  have  built  in  the 
realm  of  religion  is  an  inverted  pyramid. 

On  the  other  hand,  those  who  think  with  Kant  that 


146     Intellectual  Vigor  and  Activity  in  the  Ministry. 

the  intellect,  if  obedient  to  the  laws  which  condition 
thought,  cannot  cross  the  gulf  which  divides  the  abso- 
lute from  the  relative,  but  that  the  moral  faculties  can, 
have  fared  scarcely  better.  Starting  with  the  asserted 
"  imperatives"  of  the  moral  reason,  — i.e.,  God,  immor- 
tality, and  the  moral  law,  —  and  relegating  revealed 
religion  to  the  inferior  position  of  a  mere  auxiliary  to 
the  moral  reason,  they  too  have  equally  failed  in  con- 
structive power.  Having  dragged  Christianity  from  its 
throne  of  sovereignty,  they  cannot  agree  upon  any  satis- 
factory substitute.  The  moral  reason,  so  self-sufficing 
according  to  their  theory,  cannot  do  the  work  or  bear 
the  strain  put  upon  it,  but  breaks  down  utterly  under 
the  final,  crucial  test.  "When  analyzed  and  sifted  it  is 
found  to  be  powerless  to  give  shape  and  vitality  to  the 
raw  material  which  it  furnishes  for  the  structure  of 
religion.  Nor  does  the  material  so  furnished  cover  the 
whole  ground  which  religion  must  occupy  if  it  is  to 
be  of  any  practical  service  to  mankind.  Moreover  this 
theory  of  the  moral  reason  does  not  square  with  the 
facts.  The  theory  assumes  that  the  light  it  sheds  is 
pure  light ;  that  it  is  a  faculty  free  from  flaws  and  frac- 
tures ;  that  it  is  now  what  it  was  at  its  creation,  upright 
and  undefiled,  the  one  governor  of  man's  nature  whose 
supremacy  may  not  be  questioned.  But  the  facts  prove 
that  the  exact  opposite  is  true :  that  what  light  it  gives 
is  mixed  with  misleading  shadows ;  that  it  is  seamed 
and  scarred  as  by  some  great  catastrophe ;  that  it  is 
fallen  and  corrupt ;  and  that  in  reality,  while  proving 
its  title  to  command  all  the  elements  of  human  life, 
whether  passional  or  intellectual  or  moral,  it  is  often 


Intellectual  Vigor  and  Activity  in  the  Ministry.     147 

disobeyed  and  set  at  naught.  Psychologically  consid- 
ered, it  is  supreme,  and  its  authority  ought  to  be  the 
very  highest.  Ethically  and  practically  considered,  it  is 
weak  and  fallible.  The  moral  reason,  then,  —  the  sole 
faculty,  according  to  this  school,  competent  to  take  hold 
of  the  Infinite  and  Absolute,  of  God  and  His  truth,  the 
sole  power  adequate  to  the  construction  of  a  religion, 
or  to  the  criticism  of  any  religion  coming  to  it  ab  extra, 
—  is,  as  matter  of  fact,  out  of  joint  with  the  life  it  was 
ordained  to  govern ;  speaks  with  a  stammering  tongue, 
where,  if  it  speak  at  all,  it  ought  to  speak  with  a  clear- 
cut  emphasis ;  is  bound  by  fetters  where  it  should  exhibit 
an  unchallenged  freedom ;  gives  scarcely  light  enough 
to  drive  back  the  pursuing,  hovering  darkness.  And 
yet  this  is  the  reason,  this  is  the  conscience,  that  is  to 
be  enthroned  above  revelation,  and  to  sit  in  final  and 
all-comprehending  judgment  on  its  contents.  However 
these  views  may  stand  when  an  exhaustive  metaphysical 
analysis  shall  have  subjected  them  to  its  final  test,  it  is 
certain  that  it  was  no  Ordinary  or  rudely  equipped  type 
of  the  theological  intellect  which  worked  them  out,  and 
won  for  them  the  respect  of  modern  thought. 

in.  As  further  illustrating  the  theological  vitality  of 
the  Clergy,  observe  what  they  have  done  to  keep  alive, 
in  the  popular  mind  and  in  every-day  life,  the  sense  of 
the  supernatural  as  a  practical,  habitual  influence  upon 
character  and  conduct,  as  well  as  upon  thought  and 
feeling.  The  causes  tending  to  weaken  this  sense  are 
so  familiar,  that  it  will  be  enough  to  name  without 
enlarging  upon  them.  Men  in  our  time  live  m  the 
present  in  the  sense  of  living  for  the  present.     There 


148     Intellectual  Vigor  and  Activity  in  the  Ministry. 

have  been  times  when  men  lived  in  the  present  in  the 
sense  of  living  for  the  future,  and  living  also  in  the 
past  in  order  the  better  to  live  for  both.  The  past  to 
them  was  full  of  great  memories,  and  the  future  full 
of  inspiring  hopes,  while  the  present  was  flat,  sterile, 
unprofitable.  But  now  the  things  that  absorb  heart  and 
brain  and  hand,  the  passions  and  conflicts,  the  sorrows 
and  joys  which  throb  along  the  arteries  of  life  are  in 
and  of  the  present.  As  comparatively  little  value  is 
attached  to  what  is  distant,  so  comparatively  little  im- 
portance is  attached  to  what  is  unseen,  or  to  what  does 
not  come  to  us  as  self-evident  or  as  demonstratively 
certain.  A  thing  that  is  doubted  is  subject  to  heavy 
discount.  Every  thing  must  be  verified,  and  most  things 
are  held  to  be  of  little  worth  that  do  not  on  their  face 
show  the  uses  to  which  they  can  be  put.  Immediate 
pay  and  profit  is  the  watchword  of  the  day.  There  is  a 
hard  realism  in  business  of  all  sorts ;  but  not  more  of 
it  than  there  is  in  science,  history,  and  letters.  Men 
still  talk  about  the  ideal,  write  prose  and  poetry  about 
it,  dream  about  it,  on  rare  emergencies  find  in  it  a 
certain  glow  of  feeling  and  imagination  ;  but  all  that  is 
the  by-play,  not  the  serious  work,  of  the  age.  Abundant 
proofs  of  all  this  are  at  hand  in  our  politics  and  educa- 
tion, in  our  judgments  on  passing  events,  and  in  our 
estimates  of  what  is  chiefly  good  and  enjoyable  in  life. 
Then  there  is  the  depressing  weight  of  our  marvellous 
material  greatness,  arising  from  the  large  ascendency 
which  has  been  acquired  over  the  resources  and  powers 
of  nature.  Connected  with,  or  rather  resulting  from,  this 
dominion,  is  an  average  of  comfort  and  luxury  such  as 


Intellectual  Vigor  and  Activity  in  the  Ministry.     149 

the  world  never  saw  or  dreamed  of  before,  —  an  average 
so  high  as  to  breed  in  the  common  mind  indifference  to 
any  other  or  better  heaven  than  what  can  be  found  now 
and  here.  In  such  a  state  of  things,  the  still  voice  and 
the  veiled  glory  of  the  supernatural  are  at  a  discount ; 
and  it  need  scarcely  be  added,  that  the  extent  to  which 
they  are  so  measures  the  decline  from  the  sources  of  the 
truest  and  best  life,  and  signalizes  the  sweeping-away 
from  the  soul's  firmament  of  the  surest  lights  which  God 
has  set  there.  Crush  in  man  the  practical  belief  in 
the  supernatural,  and  you  crush  in  him  the  very  possi- 
bility of  permanent  moral  power  and  greatness.  This 
is  God's  ordinance,  and  the  reason  for  it  is  wedged  into 
the  core  of  humanity. 

In  such  times,  and  amid  such  tendencies,  too  much 
credit  cannot  be  given  to  those  who  make  it  the  fore- 
most duty  and  chief  aim  of  their  life-work  to  chafe  into 
vitality  and  power  the  dormant  or  dying  sense  of  the 
supernatural  in  all  the  modes  of  it  which  God  employs 
for  the  salvation  of  man,  —  the  written  Revelation,  the 
Church  with  its  means  of  grace,  the  living  Christ  with 
all  that  came  forth  from  Him,  and  the  Holy  Ghost,  the 
Lord  and  Giver  of  life.  Now,  speaking  generally,  next 
to  the  undying  conviction  in  the  soul  of  the  existence 
of  God  and  of  a  future  life,  which,  however  it  may  be 
crippled  or  hid  beneath  deep  shadows,  never  utterly 
forfeits  its  power,  nothing  has  done  so  much  to  save  the 
sense  of  the  supernatural  as  an  element  of  the  common 
faith  from  blight  or  torpor  as  the  Christian  Priesthood, 
appointed  of  God  and  acknowledged  of  man  to  be 
the  teacher  and  guardian  of  an  authentic  message  from 


150     Intellectual  Vigor  and  Activity  in  the  Ministry. 

heaven,  which  is  the  substance  of  things  hoped  for  and 
the  evidence  of  things  not  seen.  It  is  needless  to  argue 
the  value  of  such  a  service  to  humanity.  It  does  not 
now,  and  never  will,  make  an  item  in  the  statistics  of 
the  nineteenth  century.  There  is  no  arithmetic  to  com- 
pute it,  no  logic  to  formulate  it,  no  poetry  to  glorify  it 
to  the  million,  no  oratory  to  blazon  it  at  the  seats  of 
national  power  or  along  the  highways  of  the  world's 
thought.  For  vastly  inferior  services  the  canvas  glows 
and  the  marble  breathes,  and  the  nations  lift  glad 
shouts  of  grateful  praise.  And  yet  this  sublime  minis- 
tration of  things  supernatural  goes  on  with  no  thought 
of  pause  or  defeat,  of  the  world's  praise  or  blame ; 
though  as  necessary  to  the  life  of  man,  and  as  much 
unthanked  and  unheeded,  as  the  daily  sun  or  the  vital 
air. 

IV.  But,  again,  the  vigilance  and  activity  of  the  theo- 
logical mind  are  impressively  exhibited  in  what  has 
been  done  for  the  re-adjustment,  illustration,  and  en- 
forcement of  the  several  lines  of  the  Theistic  argument, 
with  a  view  to  meeting  the  altered  phases  of  modern 
thought.  The  existence  of  God  is^  the  foundation  of 
theology.  In  all  theological  reasoning  there  are  two 
points  of  departure;  i.e.,  the  being  of  God,  and  the 
human  soul.  If  either  be  granted,  the  rest  follows. 
Christianity  begins  with  the  former,  and  out  of  it  devel- 
ops the  scheme  of  redemption,  and  then,  by  what  it  was 
appointed  to  do,  measures  the  spmtual  wants  of  man. 
God's  purposes  toward  man  tell  what  man  is,  more  surely 
and  more  exhaustively  than  any  possible  statement  by 
himself  of  his  own  condition.     Therefore,  as  might  be 


Intellectual  Vigor  and  Activity  in  the  Ministry.     151 

expected,  nearly  all  the  deeper  thought  antagonistic  to 
revealed  religion  assails,  before  all  else,  its  teaching  as 
to  the  existence  of  God.  While  the  arguments  for  His 
existence,  as  Christianity  represents  it,  have  not  changed 
materially  in  their  character  or  substance,  the  mode 
of  putting  them  has  changed  with  the  changes  in  the 
sceptical  theories  that  have  of  late  questioned  either 
their  validity  or  their  relevancy.  The  answers  have 
kept  pace  with  the  objections,  the  lights  with  the 
shadows.  The  theistic  reasoning  of  a  century  ago  — 
true  now  as  it  was  then  —  has  been  greatly  extended 
and  diversified.  The  progress  of  knowledge  has  been, 
to  say  the  least,  as  serviceable  to  Christian  as  to  free 
thought ;  and  in  discovering  difficulties,  and  exciting 
doubts,  it  has  also  discovered  the  means  and  excited  the 
intellectual  power  needed  to  grapple  with  and  remove 
them.  If  this  be  so,  then  clearly  one  test  of  the  mental 
energy  and  vigilance  of  the  theological  mind  is  to  be 
found  in  the  way  in  which  it  has  handled,  amid  the 
exigencies  of  the  times,  the  materials  of  the  theistic 
argument  furnished  by  both  the  old  and  the  new  learn- 
ing. It  is  not  proposed  to  go  into  details,  but  merely 
to  outline  in  the  most  general  way  the  more  salient  as- 
pects of  the  argument,  and  this  with  a  view  to  bringing 
out  the  fresh  light  thrown  upon  it  by  Christian  advocates 
(belonging  mostly  to  the  ranks  of  the  Clergy)  in  their 
efforts  to  answer  the  objections  of  modern  thought ;  and 
unless  we  are  greatly  mistaken,  the  result  of  our  inquiry 
will  prove  that  the  Church  has  no  reason  to  be  ashamed 
of  the  breadth,  acuteness,  and  versatility  of  its  ordained 
servants  in  one  of  the  highest  fields  of  disciplined  in- 
tellect. 


152     Intellectual  Vigor  and  Activity  in  the  Ministry. 

It  was  one  of  the  advantages  of  Christian  apologists 
in  the  past  age,  that  they  were  at  liberty  to  take  some 
things  for  granted.  There  were  at  least  a  few  inches 
of  common  ground  in  the  arena  of  controversy  between 
themselves  and  their  antagonists.  They  could  assume 
the  existence  of  a  Creator,  and  man's  conscious  relation 
to  him;  and,  these  facts  being  admitted,  they  could 
assume^that  religion  of  some  sort  had  a  solid  standing- 
place  in  human  reason.  Neither  Butler  nor  Paley,  for 
example,  attempts  to  go  behind  these  postulates.  Not 
so  now.  To-day  even  these  are  challenged ;  and  the 
defence  must  start  as  though  nothing  were  established 
save  the  mind's  capacity  to  think,  and  the  worlds  within 
and  without  on  which  that  capacity  is  to  be  exercised. 
Whether  or  no  there  is  a  Supreme  Being ;  whether  or 
no  He  made  the  universe,  and  still  governs  it  with 
intelligent  purpose  ;  whether  or  no  man  is  so  related  to 
Him  as  to  be  justified  in  regarding  Him  as  an  object  of 
worship ;  whether  or  no,  if  such  a  Being  exist.  He  is 
will,  and  therefore  can  be  moved,  or  fate,  and  therefore 
cannot  be,  —  these  are  open  questions,  and  around  them 
the  debate  rages  with  a  persistency  and  momentum  that 
forbid  all  thought  of  truce  or  concession.  Many,  more- 
over, are  the  substitutes  ojffered  for  the  doctrine  of 
"  one  living  and  true  God.**  One  school  tells  us  of  "  the 
latent  potency  of  matter ; "  another,  of  "a  stream  of 
tendency  under  the  guidance  of  a  power  not  ourselves 
which  makes  for  righteousness  and  order ;  "  another,  of 
abstract  formulae  of  reason  embodying  the  final  generali- 
zations of  science  and  metaphysical  speculation,  —  each 
in  turn  being  chartered  to  rule  the  kosmos,  and  work 


Intellectual  Vigor  and  Activity  in  the  Ministry.     153 

out  its  perfection.  In  dealing  with  these  and  all  kin- 
dred theories  opposed  to  Christian  Theism,  it  has  not 
been  deemed  enough  to  prove  a  negative,  or  to  drive 
them  into  a  reductio  ad  absurdum.  Our  doctrine  of  God, 
and  of  the  origin  and  relations  of  the  universe,  must  be 
as  positive  as  that  of  revelation,  or  nothing.  In  stating 
this  doctrine,  recent  apologists  have  done  good  service 
in  pointing  out  distinctly,  (1)  what  it  is  proposed  to 
prove ;  and  (2)  what  are  competent  proofs ;  and  (3)  how 
much  the  force  of  these  proofs  depends  on  the  condition, 
the  training,  and  habits  of  thought,  of  the  minds  to 
which  they  are  oiFered.  In  doing  this  they  have  ad- 
mitted that  the  theistic  argument  is  not  what  scientists 
will  accept  as  absolute  demonstration,  nor  what  strict 
logicians  would  regard  as  entirely  without  flaws ;  but  at 
the  same  time  they  have  insisted,  and  in  terms  defying 
successful  contradiction,  that  the  argument  is  precisely 
of  the  sort  that  mankind  universally  accept  as  decisive 
in  the  ordinary  affairs  of  life,  and  as  abundantly  suffi- 
cient in  all  issues  affecting  the  moral  or  voluntary  as 
well  as  intellectual  nature  of  man.  They  have  shown, 
too,  that  all  strictly  scientific  or  demonstrative  reasoning 
rests  on  assumptions  rooted  in  unfathomable  mysteries  ; 
and  that,  if  there  be  no  valid  and  convincing  use  of 
reason  save  such  as  excludes  from  its  processes  every 
element  of  doubt,  then  no  trustworthy  work  can  be  done 
by  reason  among  the  facts  of  human  history,  human 
conduct,  human  society,  and  the  moral  consciousness  of 
man.  But  the  knowledge  based  on  this  class  of  facts  is 
a  higher  knowledge  than  the  knowledge  which  admits 
of  absolute  verification.     It  is  every  way  of  more  con- 


154     Intellectual  Vigor  and  Activity  in  the  Ministry. 

sequence  to  determine  a  duty,  though  it  can  be  done 
only  by  probabilities,  than  to  determine  a  chemical 
affinity  or  a  mechanical  force,  though  it  be  done  with 
the  certainty  of  demonstration.  A  given  fact  is  valu- 
able, not  in  proportion  to  the  facility  with  which  it  can 
be  referred  to  the  laws  of  thought,  or  to  the  exactness 
with  which  it  can  be  analyzed  and  classified,  but  rather 
in  proportion  to  its  bearing  on  the  life  and  character  of 
responsible  beings. 

Such  are  some  of  the  considerations  that  have  been 
urged  as  needful  to  give  the  proper  tone  and  attitude  of 
mind  in  handling  the  various  arguments  for  the  exist- 
ence of  a  personal  God.  These  arguments  are  either  a 
priori,  or  deductive  as  founded  upon  necessary,  axiomatic 
truths  of  reason ;  or  a  posteriori,  or  inductive  as  built 
upon  materials  provided  by  observation  and  experience. 
In  fact,  when  reaching  their  greatest  force,  they  combine 
both  processes,  involving  equally  the  study  of  particu- 
lar facts,  and  the  application  of  laws,  intuitions,  truths, 
said  to  be  universal  because  inherent  in  the  constitution 
of  man  and  nature.  However  much  these  two  lines  of 
reasoning  differ  in  other  respects,  they  differ  greatly  as 
to  their  practical  use  and  value.  A  more  definite  classi- 
fication is  that  of  Kant,  —  and,  probably  because  more 
definite,  more  generally  accepted  in  all  recent  theistic 
inquiries,  —  viz.,  (1)  the  Metaphysical  or  Ontological; 
(2)  Causation,  or  the  Cosmological;  (3)  Design,  or  adap- 
tation of  means  to  ends  or  final  causes,  or  the  Teleologi- 
cal;  (4)  not  falling  altogether  under  the  last,  though 
partly  within  its  province,  the  Anthropological,  or  the 
argument  arising  from  the  facts  of  human  conscious- 


Intellectual  Vigor  and  Activity  in  the  Ministry.     155 

ness  and  history.  Now,  the  Church  of  this  generation 
has  found  among  its  Clergy,  some  engaged  in  the  active 
duties  of  the  Priesthood  and  some  occupying  Divinity 
chairs  and  lectureships,  no  lack  of  ability  to  review  these 
arguments,  to  determine  their  comparative  force,  to  repel 
the  objections  and  solve  the  difficulties  alleged  by  the 
several  schools  of  free  or  positively  sceptical  thought. 
If  their  calibre  and  culture,*and  general  faculty  for  deep 
and  solid  thinking,  are  to  be  estimated  by  what  they 
have  done  in  this  direction,  the  Clergy  have  little  to  fear 
as  to  the  ultimate  verdict  of  all  fair-minded  men. 

The  least  valuable  of  the  theistic  arguments  is  the 
metaphysical.  It  belongs  to  the  region  of  abstractions  ; 
and  from  Anselm  and  Descartes  down  to  Hegel  it  has 
proved  to  be  little  else  than  a  series  of  mental  gymnas- 
tics. It  would  lift  the  mind  above  itself,  and  put  into 
it  more  than  it  can  hold.  Its  conclusions  outrun  its 
premises.  It  vainly  attempts  to  conceive  being  in  the 
abstract,  and  then  to  convert  what  is  an  impossible 
conception  into  a  definite  term  in  logic ;  and  the  result 
is  a  process  of  reasoning  that  turns  not  on  differences  of 
things,  but  on  distinctions  of  words.  Such  a  process  can 
add  nothing  to  ^the  knowledge  of  man,  however  it  may 
delude  him  into  believing  the  contrary.  From  the  time 
Kant  proved  that  "  the  unconditioned  necessity  of  a 
mental  judgment  does  not  form  the  absolute  necessity  of 
a  thing"  (i.e.,  that  an  idea  of  God  in  the  mind  does  not 
certify  the  reality  of  His  existence ;  or,  generally,  that 
the  actual  being  of  an  object  can  never  be  shown  by 
thinking  about  it),  this  argument  has  been  pushed  higher 
and  higher  into  the  empyrean  of  speculation,  until  its 


156     Intellectual  Vigor  and  Actimty  in  the  Ministry. 

pure  idealism  culminated  in  the  metaphysical  postulate 
of  Fichte  and  Schelling  and  Hegel,  who  affirmed  that 
the  subject  contained  the  object,  the  ego  the  non-ego,  — 
in  other  words,  that  thought  and  being  are  identical,  and 
constitute  an  organic  unity ;  nay,  still  further,  that  the 
intellectual  intuition  of  the  absolute  is  resolvable  into  a 
logical  idea,  and  that  this  in  turn,  and  by  necessary  con- 
sequence, takes  on  the  form  and  authority  of  a  supreme 
law  of  thought.  It  is  true  that  in  every  finite  we  have 
an  idea  of  the  infinite,  and  vice  versa ;  it  is  true  that  of 
nature  and  self,  of  the  infinite  and  the  finite,  of  God 
and  man,  we  have  an  intuition  on  which  reason  rests. 
But  metaphysically  considered,  and  as  matter  of  strict 
logic,  correlative  ideas  do  not  certify  one  another.  The 
negation  implied  in  the  infinite  indicates  not  existence, 
but  non-existence.  As  has  been  well  remarked,  "  the 
chief  importance  of  the  metaphysical  arguments  for  the 
existence  of  God  does  not  lie  in  their  metaphysical 
validity,  but  in  their  testimony  to  the  tendency  of  human 
thought."  K  they  do  not  demonstrate  His  existence,  they 
certainly  prove  that  the  idea  of  such  a  Being  is  coincident 
vsdth  the  loftiest  exercise  of  reason.  In  other  words, 
their  value  is  not  in  what  they  accomplish  as  demon- 
strations, but  in  what  they  do  toward  establishing  an 
antecedent  probability  of  the  truth  of  other  and  less 
pretentious  lines  of  reasoning  looking  to  the  same  end. 
This,  so  far  as  the  writer  is  able  to  judge  after  much 
inquiry,  is  a  fair  statement  of  the  estimation  in  which 
the  later  and  more  ambitious  forms  of  the  ontological 
argument  are  held  by  the  soundest  Christian  thinkers  of 
the  day. 


Intellectual  Vigor  and  Activity  in  the  Ministry.     157 

We  turn  now  to  the  other  arguments,  whose  individual 
force  can  be  fully  appreciated  only  when  we  reach  the 
final  result  to  which,  by  widely  different  paths,  they  lead 
us.  They  do  not  claim  the  virtue  of  absolute  demonstra- 
tions, but  that  which  after  its  kind  is  scarcely  less,  —  the 
virtue  of  cumulative  intellectual  and  moral  probabilities 
based  on  the  primary  intuitions  of  consciousness,  on  the 
suggestions  and  demands  of  the  practical  reason  or 
conscience,  and  on  the  testimony  of  history  and  human 
experience. 

The  Christian  position  in  respect  to  the  several  forms 
of  the  theistic  argument  cannot  be  more  exactly  or 
comprehensively  stated  than  in  the  words  of  St.  Paul : 
"  The  invisible  things  of  him  from  the  creation  of  the 
world  are  clearly  seen,  heing  understood  hy  the  things  that 
are  made^  even  his  eternal  power  and  Godhead."  ^  We 
know  God  by  what  he  has  made,  and  only  more  per- 
fectly by  what  he  has  said  in  a  Revelation  that  verifies 
itself  by  appealing  pre-eminently  to  the  moral  and 
spiritual  nature  of  man.  We  see  the  works,  and  by 
them  know  the  workman.  This  is  the  rock  of  our  con- 
fidence in  the  validity  of  this  great  argument ;  and  it 
cannot  be  broken  or  dislodged  without  involving  in  the 
same  fate  the  most  rudimentary  and  instinctive  judg- 
ments of  the  human  mind.  If  we  look  at  ourselves,  or 
at  the  outward  world,  certain  inferences  are  irresistible  ; 
and  these  inferences,  by  the  necessary  and  universal  tes- 
timony of  our  intelligence,  imply  a  power,  wisdom,  and 
goodness  that  it  is  impossible  to  conceive  of  apart  from 
an  infinite  personality.    Metaphysical  speculation  weaves 

1  Rom.  i.  20. 


158     Intellectual  Vigor  and  Activity  in  the  Ministry. 

about  these  inferences  no  end  of  difficulties  ;  but  some- 
how all  healthy  minds,  when  they  think  upon  them  as 
they  think  upon  all  matters  relating  to  life  and  conduct, 
fail  to  see  the  lion  in  the  path  that  proves  so  formidable 
to  the  votaries  of  abstract  thought.  There  is  scarcely 
any  mental  process,  that,  if  pushed  far  enough,  does  not 
land  us  in  puzzles ;  and  if  we  must  set  aside  as  worthless 
all  conclusions  not  absolutely  proof  against  every  plau- 
sible subtlety  of  metaphysical  reasoning,  it  is  hard  to  say 
what  would  be  left  us.  Fortunately  the  average  sense 
of  mankind  holds  on  its  way,  and  seldom  mistakes  sand 
for  granite,  or  tapers  for  stars. 

In  the  cosmological  argument,  or  that  from  cause  and 
effect,  the  objections  advanced  by  recent  thought  have 
added  little  to  those  of  Hume.  For  causation  he  sub- 
stituted uniformity  of  succession,  and  argued  that  one 
thing  follows  another  simply  in  the  relation  of  antece- 
dent and  consequent;  experience,  beyond  which  we 
cannot  go,  limiting  the  mind  to  this  relation.  Later 
objectors  have  so  far  qualified  Hume's  notion  as  to  ad- 
mit the  principle  of  causality ;  but  they  render  it  useless 
as  one  of  the  grounds  of  theistic  proof,  by  defining  it  as 
nothing  more  than  the  transference  of  force  from  one 
thing  to  another,  and  then  by  asserting  that  the  cause 
is  always  contained  in  the  effect,  and  that  the  effect 
measures  the  cause  from  which  it  proceeds.  From 
these  premises  it  is  argued,  that,  if  we  regard  the  physi- 
cal world  as  an  effect,  we  have  no  right  to  infer  a  cause 
greater  than  itself;  and,  next,  that  the  law  of  causality 
"  forbids  a  stop  in  its  numeric  precession  which  is  to  be 
designated  as  a  first  cause,  itself  having  no  precedent 


Intellectual  Vigor  and  Activity  in  the  Ministry.     159 

cause,"  for,  to  make  such  a  stop  in  the  process  would 
be  to  subvert  the  foundation  of  the  structure  so  reared. 
It  is  claimed,  moreover,  that,  as  both  cause  and  effect 
are  physical,  neither  can  be  invested  with  qualities,  as 
moral  or  intellectual,  not  found  in  the  other.  And  so 
it  is  argued  that  we  cannot  get  beyond  the  physical 
order  by  the  use  of  a  law  in  which  that  order  is  con- 
stantly implied ;  i.e.,  we  cannot  reach  the  being  of  God, 
or  the  Infinite,  by  tracing  back  or  heaping  together 
finite  changes  however  countless.  Granting  the  prem- 
ises, the  logic  is  unanswerable.  But  the  fault  of  the 
logic  is  that  it  leaves  out  some  important  elements  of 
the  problem,  and  involves  what  the  instinctive  judgment 
of  the  mind  is  not  slow  in  declaring  a  reductio  ad  absurd- 
um.  In  all  causation  there  is  the  conception  of  power 
as  well  as  the  conception  of  succession  of  phenomena ; 
and  of  power,  moreover,  superior  tp  the  phenomena  that 
manifest  it.  Man  himself  acts  freely  on  nature.  He 
cannot  originate  new  laws,  but  he  can  originate  new 
combinations  of  things  and  forces.  He  is  conscious  of 
an  energy  that  stands  apart  from,  asserts  itself  upon  or 
independently  of,  passive  nature.  The  very  idea  of  cau- 
sation is  a  product  of  mind,  not  of  matter.  It  carries 
with  it,  as  matter  of  consciousness^  the  attributes  of 
universality  and  necessity,  as  well  as  the  quality  of 
power  or  force.  It  is  not  true,  too,  as  a  matter  of  con- 
sciousness, that  every  effect  contains  its  cause  in  the 
sense  of  being  the  measure  of  it.  An  effect  manifests, 
attests,  represents,  its  cause;  but  does  not  exhaust  it. 
If  we  find  in  causality  only  transference  of  force,  it  does 
not  follow  that  one  thing  regarded  as  cause  transfers  to 


160     Intellectual  Vigor  and  Activity  in  the  Ministry. 

another  thing  regarded  as  effect  all  its  force.  It  may 
retain  more  than  it  imparts.  Every  cause  must  be  ade- 
quate to  its  effect ;  but  every  effect  need  not  be  equiva- 
lent to  its  cause,  though  it  must  partake  of  the  character 
of  its  cause.  With  the  innate  idea  of  power  as  superior 
to  phenomena  is  associated,  with  the  certainty  of  an 
intuition,  the  idea  of  personality,  —  of  will  and  intelli- 
gence. This  holds  true  of  our  own  thought  upon  the 
works  of  our  hands ;  and  it  holds  true  equally  of  our 
thought  upon  the  universe  as  a  totality  of  works.  We 
can  no  more  conceive  of  it  as  self-originated,  or  as  the 
result  of  chance,  than  we  can  conceive  of  it  as  proceed- 
ing from  nothing ;  and,  if  we  cannot  do  the  latter,  we 
must  fall  back  on  something  eternal.  Change,  as  sci- 
ence tells  us,  is  the  condition  of  all  things  that  appear ; 
behind  them  the  mind  is  forced  to  seek  the  unchange- 
able. And  so  we  are  driven  upon  one  or  the  other  of 
these  two  conceptions :  either  the  succession  of  finite 
causes  and  effects  is  eternal,  or  beyond  this  succession 
there  is  an  infinite  cause  or  reason  of  all  existence  — 
itself  uncaused.  Both,  metaphysically  considered,  are 
incomprehensible  by  the  logical  understanding,  but  both 
are  not  alike  in  their  hold  on  the  primary  instincts  of 
the  mind ;  for  these  affirm  that  it  is  more  reasonable  to 
believe  that  the  finite  has  proceeded  from  the  infinite, 
than  that  the  finite  is  eternal,  and  so  to  co-ordinate  it 
with  the  infinite.  If  we  reject  the  theistic  conception 
of  the  origin  of  the  universe,  modern  thought  allows 
us  but  two  other  theories,  —  that  which  traces  the  uni- 
verse to  one  eternal  principle,  manifesting  itself  phe- 
nomenally to  consciousness  in  the  dual  form  of  matter 


Intellectual  Vigor  and  Activity  in  the  Ministry,     161 

and  mind,  though  necessarily  neither  the  one  nor  the 
other,  unknowable  in  itself  because  transcendental,  and 
therefore  at  best  only  an  inference  of  reason ;  and  that 
which  regards  the  universe  as  the  product  of  material 
forces  that  have  eternally  existed,  working  out  by  their 
own  inherent  laws,  and  through  countless  cycles  of  time, 
the  effects  that  we  see,  —  these  effects  being  wrought 
up  into  cosmic  order  by  the  human  mind  itself.  The 
former  theory  figures  in  living  thought  as  agnostic 
monism;  the  latter,  as  absolute  materialism.  Both, 
though  in  different  manner,  equally  violate  the  primary 
laws  of  human  thought.  As  has  been  shown  over  and 
over,  —  too  often  to  make  it  worth  while  to  repeat  the 
process  here,  —  the  principle  of  causality  taken  by  itself, 
and  as  only  one  branch  of  the  theistic  argument,  proves 
that  there  is  no  resting-place  for  reason,  save  in  the 
conception  of  a  personal  Creator,  from  whom  all  things 
proceed,  and  by  whom  and  for  whom  all  things  consist. 

But  next  we  have  the  teleological  argument,  or  that 
from  final  causes.  And  here,  again,  speculation  has 
thrown  itself  across  the  path  of  our  instinctive,  common- 
sense  judgments.  The  waters  that  float  this  argument 
would  be  clear  enough  apart  from  the  mud  cast  into 
them  by  metaphysical  digging.  We  cannot  look  at  the 
world  without  seeing  in  it  endless  proofs  of  intelligent 
foresight  and  wise  purpose.  There  is  not  only  power, 
but  power  directed  by  wisdom.  Intermediate  means 
and  ends  work  toward  a  fore-ordained  issue.  There  is 
a  combination,  —  a  harmony  of  phenomena.  Past  and 
present  are  plainly  determined  in  relation  to  the  future. 
Innumerable  and  virtually  infinite  forces  are  at  work, 


162     Intellectual  Vigor  and  Activity  in  the  Ministry. 

and  yet  they  are  so  marvellously  adjusted  as  to  subserve 
the  promotion  of  order  and  progress.  The  mind  seeks 
not  only  to  explain  things  individually,  or  in  mass,  but 
demands,  beside,  some  rational  account  of  the  order  that 
pervades  them.  To  say  that  this  order  merely  happened, 
that  it  is  the  creature  of  chance,  not  only  explains 
nothing,  but  is  an  insult  to  reason.  To  say  that  nature 
is  the  sufficient  account  of  itself,  is  only  to  give  up  the 
question  as  a  hopeless  enigma.  It  were  needless  to  go 
over  ground  so  often  traversed,  and  to  cite  from  the 
vast  mass  of  facts  illustrative  of  this  argument  gathered 
especially  from  organic  functions  and  animal  instincts. 
Rationally  man  cannot  help  applying  to  the  universe 
the  same  principles  which  govern  him  when  he  judges 
his  own  work  and  the  work  of  his  fellow-men.  He 
refers  to  intelligence,  to  design,  to  a  final  cause,  what, 
in  his  own  sphere,  could  not  have  been  produced  save 
by  an  intelligent,  forecasting  mind,  looking  in  all  its 
operations  to  a  determinate  end ;  and  as  he  sees  in 
nature  unspeakably  more  wonderful  adaptations  of 
means  to  ends  than  any  of  which  himself  is  capable,  so 
he  infers,  and  with  a  cogency  that  carries  with  it  the 
axiomatic,  irresistible  affirmations  of  his  reason,  that 
the  cause  which  produced  them  is  to  all  intents  and 
purposes  infinitely  more  wise,  as  well  as  powerful,  than 
himself.  Left  to  the  guidance  of  his  own  reason,  and 
apart  from  speculative  perplexities  which  amuse,  or  at 
most  exercise  without  instructing,  the  human  mind,  he 
sees  just  what  St.  Paul  declared  that  he  must  and  ought 
to  see,  —  even  God's  eternal  power  and  Godhead  in  the 
things  which  are  made,  the  universe  as  it  appears. 


Intellectual  Vigor  and  Activity  in  the  Ministry.     163 

The  objections  to  this  argument,  however  ingeniously 
worked  out  and  persistently  urged  by  modem  thought, 
have  not  weighed  much  in  the  estimation  of  the  bulk 
of  mankind.  They  seem  content  to  let  the  metaphysi- 
cians try  their  teeth  on  this  file,  and  for  their  own  diver- 
sion to  keep  on  rattling  the  dry  bones  of  their  logic ; 
themselves  resting  meanwhile  securely  on  the  intuitive 
conviction  that  things  made  must  have  a  maker,  that 
order  in  nature  must  have  an  intelligent  source,  that 
where  intelligence  is  there  must  be  personality,  and 
that  where  personality  proves  itself  by  effects  practically 
infinite,  itself  must  be  practically  infinite. 

Hume  said  that  man  had  a  right  to  reason  in  this  way 
only  within  the  limits  of  his  own  experience  and  obser- 
vation ;  that,  to  judge  correctly  of  one  world,  he  must 
know  all  worlds.  But  every  advance  of  science  is  help- 
ing to  answer  this  objection  ;  for,  the  farther  it  moves  on 
into  the  universe,  the  more  clearly  does  it  discover  an 
all-embracing  unity.  It  is  said  that  the  argument  rests 
on  analogy  ;  that  man  takes  too  much  for  granted  when 
he  reasons  from  what  he  is  and  does  to  the  power  —  if 
there  be  one  self-existent  and  eternal  —  that  works  in 
and  through  the  universe.  Because  he  may  think  a  law, 
it  is  no  sufficient  proof  that  such  a  law  really  exists : 
because  he  thinks  a  God,  it  does  not  follow  that  the 
God  so  thought  out  really  is.  But  we  answer:  Unless 
we  are  to  sever  all  intelligible  connection  between  our- 
selves and  that  which  is  not  ourselves,  we  must  believe 
that  the  non-ego  has  its  truthful  counterpart  in  the  ego. 
Our  own  conceptions  are  not,  and  cannot  be,  the  measure 
of  the  Absolute  Being ;  and  yet  we   cannot  but  so  far 


164     Intellectual  Vigor  and  Activity  in  the  Ministry. 

confide  in  his  veracity  and  goodness  as  to  believe  that  the 
laws  of  thought  in  us  have  a  legitimate  and  necessary 
relation  to  things  as  they  are  in  themselves ;  and  if  vre 
can  accept  the  fact  of  a  supernatural  revelation  which 
enables  us  to  see  God  face  to  face  by  a  direct  and  imme- 
diate vision,  as  theologians  affirm  to  be  the  case,  then  is 
this  instinctive  confidence  only  another  name  for  a  moral 
demonstration.  As  has  been  strikingly  remarked,  "  If 
we  are  not  to  throw  away  all  idea  of  homogeneity  and 
proportion  between  cause  and  effect,  between  instinctive 
tendency  and  fulfilment,  then  the  rational  and  the  moral 
in  us  can  neither  have  their  beginning  nor  reach  their 
end  apart  from  Divine  reason,  —  from  an  intelligent,  in- 
fiinite,  personal  cause.  We  find  not  an  appetency,  aff'ec- 
tion,  or  energy  of  our  being,  that  fails  to  meet  its  fitting 
object :  through  the  range  of  the  animal,  the  domestic, 
the  social  life,  the  several  relations,  of  which  one  term 
is  within  us,  complete  themselves  by  hitting  upon  the 
other  in  the  external  scene.  Is,  then,  this  analogy  to 
be  first  broken  when  we  reach  the  highest  levels  of 
humanity "?  Are  we  there  fleeing  out  of  all  relations, 
though  still  furnished  with  their  inward  drift  and  cry  ? 
still  sent  to  seek,  with  pre-judgment  that  we  shall  not 
find  %  If  we  are  to  assume  any  oneness  or  any  harmony 
of  our  nature  with  its  theatre  of  being,  such  disappoint- 
ment of  its  ends  carries  in  it  an  improbability  revolting 
to  the  reason."  ^ 

Spinoza's  objection  to  the  argument  has  been  revived 
and  expanded.  He  faulted  it,  because,  if  true,  it  would 
destroy  the  perfection  of  God;    inasmuch  as  it  would 

1  Dr.  Martineau's  Ideal  Substitutes  for  God,  p.  29. 


Intellectual  Vigor  and  Activity  in  the  Ministry.     165 

represent  Him  as  looking  for  an  end  outside  of  Himself, 
and  therefore  as  lacking  something  which,  if  perfect,  He 
must  possess.  The  answer  is,  that  God  does  not  complete, 
but  simply  manifests.  Himself  by  what  He  creates. 

The  materialist  objects,  that  we  need  not  look  beyond 
the  forces  at  work  in  the  universe  in  order  to  account 
for  what  we  see.  But  a  material  force  capable  of  effects 
involving  an  intelligent  purpose,  is  not  what  we  under- 
stand by  a  material  force.  If  such  a  force  work  by  law, 
there  must  be  a  precedent  power  to  prescribe  the  law. 
It  is  impossible  to  conceive  of  an  atom  self-impelled, 
self-directed,  by  a  law  inherent  in  itself.  If  it  could 
originate  its  own  law,  it  would  not  be  what  it  is ;  and 
what  is  true  of  a  single  atom  is  true  of  any  mass  of 
atoms,  —  of  the  universe. 

Another  school  antagonizes  the  argument  because  of 
the  anomalies,  imperfections,  and  dim  gropings  of  na- 
ture, which  are  inconsistent  with  the  idea  of  a  perfect 
governing  intelligence.  Much  has  been  made  of  useless 
or  rudimentary  organs  in  nature ;  of  adaptations  that 
work  harm,  that  convulse,  rend,  poison,  burn,  drown, 
and  in  countless  ways  destroy  life,  and  mar  the  harmony 
and  beauty  of  the  world.  But  this  really  does  not  make 
against  the  principle  of  the  argument,  except  so  far  as 
our  ignorance  of  the  whole  plan  of  nature  hides  from 
us  the  final  cause.  Shut  up  to  efficient  causes,  the  world 
is  a  hopeless  riddle.  Its  discords  have  no  solution.  Its 
power  is  blind  and  pitiless ;  its  strifes  and  angers  are 
those  of  fate ;  it  builds  only  to  destroy,  and  nourishes 
life  only  for  the  grave.  But  once  concede  a  purpose, 
an   ultimate   end,  an   intelligent   directing  mind;    and 


166     Intellectual  Vigor  and  Activity  in  the  Ministry. 

forces  that  seemed  at  war  fall  into  unity,  things  afloat 
drop  into  their  orbits,  mountains  of  difficulty  are  brought 
low,  and  valleys  of  mystery  are  filled  up. 

Still  another  school,  —  the  school  of  sceptics  who  tell 
us,  "It  may  be  as  you  say ;  the  universe  may  have  in  it 
the  mind  and  upon  it  the  hand  of  God :  but  you  cannot 
prove  it,"  —  speaking  through  its  ablest  disciple,^  admits 
that  "  there  is  a  balance  of  probability  in  favor  of  crea- 
tion by  intelligence,"  but  insists  that  it  is  only  "  prob- 
ability." As  no  one  has  claimed  for  the  teleological 
argument  the  character  of  a  demonstration,  this  admis- 
sion answers  the  pui-pose  of  the  argument. 

But,  finally,  a  few  words  must  suffice  on  the  foremost 
opponents  of  the  argument  from  design,  the  evolution- 
ists. Starting  with  an  attempt  to  account  for  the  origin 
of  species,  they  have  step  by  step  passed  on  to  astron- 
omy, geology,  zoology,  history,  politics,  and  social  statics. 
They  hold  that  a  process  of  development  from  some 
unknown  and  inconceivable  beginning  explains  all  that 
can  be  explained ;  and  that  this  process  is  simply  one 
phase  of  the  universe,  considered  as  a  totality  of  force 
acting  and  re-acting  with  continuous  energy,  and  accord- 
ing to  uniform  and  unchangeable  laws.  The  theory 
is  harmless  or  harmful,  according  to  the  use  made  of  it. 
It  may  be  theistic  or  atheistic.  If  it  be  allowed  that 
God  directs  the  evolution,  as  well  as  originates  it,  we 
need  not  quarrel  with  the  theory  as  being  necessarily 
fatal  to  Christian  Theism,  though  it  eliminate  special 
interventions  of  creative  power.  "  The  genesis  of  an 
atom,"  says  Herbert  Spencer,  "is  no  easier  to  conceive 

1  J.  Stuart  Mill. 


Intellectual  Vigor  and  Activity  in  the  Ministry.     167 

than  that  of  a  planet.  Indeed,  far  from  rendering  the 
universe  less  mysterious  than  before,  evolution  makes 
a  greater  mystery  of  it.  Creation  by  fabrication  is 
much  lower  than  creation  by  evolution."^  Evolution 
with  a  presiding  mind  and  a  final  cause  is  no  stranger 
to  theology.  On  the  contrary,  it  is  as  old  as  the 
thought  of  St.  Augustine,  who,  when  he  declared  that 
God  might  have  created  all  things  potentialiter  et  cau- 
saliter,  —  the  universe  from  a  germ  or  germs  in  which 
were  latent  and  alive  in  anticipation  all  possibilities  of 
life  and  being,  —  declared  all  that  theistic  evolutionists 
claim  to-day.  But  the  contention  not  merely  of  theol- 
ogy, but  of  sound  reason,  is  with  a  more  radical  notion 
of  evolution,  —  that  which  leaves  neither  place  nor  occa- 
sion for  creative  intelligence,  for  a  governing  person- 
ality, but  leaves  the  origin  of  nature  as  a  primary  force 
or  collection  of  forces  in  the  fathomless  abyss  of  the  un- 
known and  unknowable.  As  such  it  is,  when  stripped 
of  all  verbiage,  merely  the  doctrine  of  chance  under 
a  more  learned  name,  and  dressed  up  in  the  liveiy  of 
science.  Passing  over  its  minor  characteristics  as  an 
attempted  account  of  the  world's  origin  and  develop- 
ment, it  is  enough  that  its  incurable  weakness  be  exposed 
at  the  bar  of  reason,  and,  by  necessary  inference,  its 
antagonism  to  the  fundamental  principle  of  Christian 
Theology.  Things  have  come  to  be  what  they  are  by 
evolution ;  but  how  did  the  evolution  begin  1  Whence 
came  the  power  that  enabled  things  to  produce  their 
like,  and  to  var}'  just  so  much  and  no  more,  as  the 
theory  presupposes?     Without   this   power,  the  whole 

1  Essays,  vol.  i   p.  298. 


168     Intellectual  Vigor  and  Activity  in  the  Ministry. 

process  would  have  been  impossible.  Whence  was  de- 
rived the  life  of  organized  beings  %  It  is  life  that  organ- 
izes ;  life  is  the  parent,  not  the  child,  of  organization. 
Again,  to  bring  the  world  where  it  is,  with  all  its  count- 
less adjustments  and  adaptations,  there  must  have  been 
a  concurrence  of  an  infinite  succession  of  lucky  chances, 
each  happening  at  the  right  time  and  place.  In  affirm- 
ing this,  the  theory  affirms  what  it  is  impossible  to 
believe.  Still  again,  when  it  is  reminded  that  there  is 
no  adequate  basis  of  fact  for  its  inferences  within  the 
precincts  of  history,  it  shoves  things  back  on  what  is 
practically  an  infinitude  of  years ;  and  so  evades  the 
question,  not  solves  it.  "  All  things,  in  fact,  are  possible 
to  those  who  can  draw  cheques  without  limit  on  the 
bank  of  eternity,  for  it  cannot  break  !  "  Such  a  theory 
may  for  a  time,  and  to  some  minds  fascinated  with  its 
stupendous  generalizations,  obscure,  but  it  cannot  dis- 
place, the  foundation-truth  of  Christian  Theism. 

We  come  now  to  the  most  telling  of  the  arguments 
for  the  existence  of  a  personal  God,  —  that  derived  from 
man  himself. 

(1)  From  self-consciousness,  or  personality; 

(2)  From  the  moral  nature  and  the  moral  world ; 

(3)  From  the  universal  consent  of  mankind ; 

(4)  From  the  evidences  of  a  moral  government,  wise, 
benevolent,  and  perfect. 

Self-consciousness  defies  analysis.  It  escapes  in  the 
attempt  to  define  it.  It  is  not  to  be  found  in  this  or 
that  quality  or  faculty  of  our  nature,  nor  in  all  qualities 
and  faculties.  Self  is  behind  and  above  all ;  and  that 
self  is  personality,  and  that  personality  is  a  free  force. 


Intellectual  Vigor  and  Activity  in  the  Ministry.     169 

—  free  though  subject  to  law,  one  in  the  midst  of  mul- 
tiplicity, continuous  and  permanent  in  the  midst  of 
change.  This  is  the  primary  truth  of  our  being.  It 
admits  of  no  proof,  because  it  is  its  own  proof.  All  the 
metaphysics  that  has  fluttered  around  this  central  core 
of  our  being  in  the  ages  all  along,  like  a  moth  around  a 
candle,  has  only  darkened  counsel.  Now,  in  virtue  of 
this  personality  we  hold  communion  with  our  fellow-men 
as  free  personalities.  But  it  is  impossible  to  conceive 
of  our  own  or  of  theirs  as  the  source  or  cause  of  the 
conscious  self.  That  self  must  have  a  ground ;  and  so 
step  by  step  we  are  carried  up  irresistibly  to  an  Infinite 
self  whose  being  is  its  own  law,  whose  freedom  is  ab- 
solute, and  whose  end  is  the  fiat  of  its  own  perfect  will. 
In  the  existence  of  such  a  Being  we  have  not  only  an 
instinctive  faith  which  is  the  source  of  a  regulative 
knowledge,  but  a  reasonable  faith,  a  faith  grounded  on 
the  reason,  a  conviction  rooted  in  an  intelligible  idea, 
and,  when  developed,  taking  the  form  of  a  positive 
cognition,  a  form  too  elementary  to  be  analyzed,  and 
too  broad  to  be  comprehended  in  a  definition.  No 
question  has  been  more  thoroughly  sifted  in  late  years 
by  Christian  scholars  and  thinkers.  We  give  results, 
and  outline  the  drift  of  inquiry,  with  no  attempt  at 
describing  processes. 

So  with  the  other  branches  of  the  anthropological 
argument,  which  we  have  no  space  for  discussing  how- 
ever briefly.  In  all,  the  intellect  of  the  Church,  as  pro- 
fessionally exercised,  has  exhibited  a  dialectic  as  well 
as  didactic  ability,  that  has  left  no  phase  of  thought  on 
the  theistic  argument  unexamined,  no  objection  to  the 


170     Intellectual  Vigor  and  Activity  in  the  Ministry. 

Christian  view  of  that  argument  unanswered.  When 
the  issue  has  been  pushed  into  the  region  of  abstract 
thought  with  all  its  affiliated  subtleties,  or  handled  by 
the  processes  of  inductive  or  deductive  logic,  or  debated 
at  the  bar  of  intuitive  judgments  and  common-sense 
beliefs,  or  thrown  out  among  the  concrete  facts  of  his- 
tory and  experience ;  it  has  been  boldly  and  thoroughly 
met,  and  by  minds  betraying  no  unfitness  for  the  task 
because  of  their  habitual  intimacy  with  the  mysteries 
of  revealed  truth,  or  their  reverence  for  the  standards  of 
a  traditional  faith.  It  should  be  observed,  moreover, 
that,  if  these  minds  have  not  in  all  respects  approved 
themselves  to  the  average  scientist  and  philosopher,  it 
has  not  been  because  they  could  not  walk  in  the  deep 
waters  of  speculation,  but  rather  because  of  a  certain 
instinctive  habit  of  estimating  the  value  of  thought  by 
its  bearing  on  life  and  character,  on  the  moral  respon- 
sibility and  spiiitual  destiny  of  mankind,  and  a  conse- 
quent impatience  of  metaphysical  guesses  and  scientific 
hypotheses  that  seemed  to  lead  nowhere  save  into  outer 
darkness.  To  name  the  minds  that,  in  this  field  of 
thought  and  in  this  generation,  have  won  honorable 
distinction  for  themselves  and  for  the  Church  by  theu" 
erudition  and  intellectual  power,  would  be  to  catalogue 
a  large  share  of  the  current  Christian  literature  of  our 
time,  a  task  that  does  not  fall  within  our  purpose. 


LECTURE  IV. 

THE  ACTIVITY  OF  THE  CLERICAL   OR    THEOLOGICAL    MIND 
IN  CHRISTIAN  AND  SCIENTIFIC  ETHICS. 

I  SHALL  now  ask  attention  to  some  of  the  more  note- 
worthy evidences  of  the  thoughtful  activity  of  the  theo- 
logical or  clerical  mind  in  the  sphere  of  Christian  and 
scientific  ethics.  For  convenience  of  handling,  ethics 
may  be  separated  from  theology  ;  but  in  substance  it  can- 
not be.  Theology  and  ethics  are  only  different  phases 
of  the  same  body  of  revealed  truth.  Christian  ethics  is 
the  doctrine  of  the  Christian  life :  Christian  theology 
is  the  doctrine  of  Christian  knowledge.  The  one  treats 
of  action  under  the  aspects  of  duty :  the  other  treats  of 
faith  as  an  object  of  intellectual  apprehension.  The 
one  handles  God's  truth  in  its  relations  to  the  will  and 
the  conscience ;  the  other,  in  its  relations  to  reason. 
The  one  aims  to  show  how  man  is  to  be  educated  and 
trained  for  time  and  eternity ;  the  other,  what  he  is  to 
believe,  and  why  he  is  to  believe  —  the  what  and  the  why 
being  regarded  as  inclusive  of  the  principles  on  which, 
and  the  methods  by  which,  that  education  and  training 
are  to  proceed.  Christian  morality,  then,  and  Christian 
theology,  are  bound  together  by  an  organic,  not  a  tech- 
nical connection.      They  were  joined  together  in  an 


172      The  Activity  of  the  Clerical  Mind  in  Ethics. 

indissoluble  marriage  by  their  eternal  Author ;  and  what 
God  has  joined  together  let  no  man  put  asunder.  And 
yet  the  history  both  of  dogmatic  and  ethical  thought 
tells  us  how  often  the  attempt  has  been  made  to  divorce 
them,  or  rather  to  absorb  the  one  in  the  other.  The 
latter  process,  which  may  be  traced  in  some  of  the  great 
masters  of  reHgious  thought,  Schleiermacher  and  Rothe 
for  example,  has  arisen  from  a  conviction  of  the  sub- 
stantial identity,  as  of  thought  and  purpose,  knowledge 
and  action,  so  of  faith  and  morals.  The  attempts  to 
divorce  them,  as  parties  not  necessarily  bound  together, 
may  be  traced  either  to  a  severely  speculative  bias  of  the 
mind,  or  to  an  avowed  determination  to  eliminate  the 
dogmatic  altogether  from  the  ethical,  the  latter  being 
regarded  as  alone  important.  For  the  sake  of  definition, 
let  us  go  a  step  farther,  and  inquire  how  Christian  ethics 
differs  from  philosophical  or  speculative  ethics.  It  dif- 
fers from  the  latter  "  in  its  subject,  which  is  not  man, 
but  Christians ;  in  its  principle,  founded  on  the  recog- 
nized relation  between  man  and  God ;  in  its  source, 
being  derived  not  from  the  reason,  but  from  the  teaching 
of  Christ  and  the  Apostles  ;  and,  finally,  in  our  percep- 
tion of  it,  which  is  not  by  any  analytical  process,  but  by 
the  Christian  consciousness." 

Now,  as  in  the  topics  previously  discussed,  so  in  this, 
it  is  my  purpose  to  deal  only  with  such  aspects  of  it  as 
will  best  exhibit  the  tone  and  drift  of  the  studies  and 
writings  of  Christian  teachers  considered  as  its  expound- 
ers and  defenders.  What,  then,  in  late  years,  has  been 
the  work  of  the  deputies  of  Christ  in  this  direction? 
Has  it  been  a  work  which  has  improved  or  damaged 


The  Activity  of  the  Clerical  Mind  in  Ethics.      173 

their  credit  as  men  of  intellectual  culture,  vigilance,  and 
energy?  The  answer  to  this  question  will  be  given 
under  the  following  heads,  as  embracing  the  characteris- 
tic points  of  the  recent  ethical  literature  of  the  Church. 

1.  The  present  attitude  of  Christian  ethics  toward 
the  ethics  of  philosophy,  or  the  natural  reason,  involving 
the  indebtedness  of  the  latter  to  the  former. 

2.  The  alleged  weaknesses  and  defects  of  Christian 
ethics. 

3.  The  grounds  of  the  superiority  of  Christian  over 
natural  ethics,  in  that  greatest  of  tasks,  the  development 
and  discipline  of  individual  character. 

It  is  well  known,  that,  when  Christianity  supplant- 
ed the  heathenism  of  antiquity,  ethics,  which  had  pre- 
viously for  many  ages  been  cultivated  as  a  province  of 
philosophy,  or  in  its  practical  relations  as  a  branch  of 
politics,  was  merged  into  theology.  It  so  continued  until 
after  the  Reformation  of  the  sixteenth  centm'y,  with  the 
exception  of  what  was  done  toward  maturing  a  system 
of  casuistry  for  the  confessional ;  but  this  could  scarcely 
be  regarded  as  an  exception,  for  it  was  done  under  the 
auspices  of  the  Church,  and  with  a  view  to  purely  reli- 
gious uses.  At  the  opening  of  the  seventeenth  century, 
there  were  some  signs  of  a  disposition  to  revive  ethical 
studies  as  an  independent  branch  of  inquiry ;  but  these 
studies  did  not  assume  a  distinctly  scientific  character 
until  after  the  famous  disputes  excited  by  the  writings  of 
Hobbes.  Toward  the  close  of  the  seventeenth  century, 
ethics  first  assumed  in  our  modern  thinking  the  position 
as  a  separate  science  which  it  has  maintained  ever  since. 
During  a  century  and  a  half  it  drew  to  itself  a  very  fair 


174      The  Activity  of  the  Clerical  Mind  in  Ethics. 

proportion  of  the  best  speculative  genius  in  England, 
France,  and  Germany.  Many  illustrious  names  adorned 
its  history  during  that  period.  But  it  is  noteworthy, 
that  of  late  it  has  not  commanded  the  interest  it  once 
did,  and  that  it  boasts  of  little  progress  in  our  day,  when 
almost  every  other  science  has  pushed  its  claims  to  an 
increased  share  of  public  attention.  Many  causes  have 
conspired  to  produce  this  result.  The  higher  thought 
of  the  time  has  been  diverted  from  it  by  physical  science, 
and  still  more  by  the  wide  and  deep  range  of  literature 
which  handles  many  subjects  once  deemed  foreign  to  it. 
It  is  certain  that  no  masters  of  ethical  inquiry  are  now 
produced  who  at  all  approach  the  great  names  of  other 
days.  When  earnest  and  anxious  spirits  need  help  and 
guidance  in  the  higher  walks  of  thought  or  amid  the 
ever-recurring  perplexities  of  life,  they  go  not  to  philoso- 
phers, but  to  poets,  to  giants  in  letters,  and  to  great 
preachers.  Wearied  out  in  the  profitless  pursuit  of 
noble  but  impalpable  spiritualities,  many  have  dropped 
off  into  a  style  of  thought  and  teaching,  which,  though 
less  pretentious,  promises  more  that  is  tangible  and  cer- 
tain. Confining  themselves  to  the  world  of  phenomena, 
to  their  co-existences  and  successions,  they  do  not  care 
to  vex  themselves  with  problems  that  lie  deeper.  It  is 
admitted,  moreover,  that  the  true  basis  of  moral  studies 
regarded  in  their  purely  scientific  aspect  is  psychology ; 
and,  further,  that  these  studies  cannot  be  exhaustively 
prosecuted  without  crossing  the  domain  of  certain  ab- 
stract metaphysical  questions  which  can  never  be  defini- 
tively settled.  But  it  so  happens  that  psychology,  though 
assuming  a  decided  physiological  bias  of  late,  has  not 


Tlie  Activity  of  the  Clerical  Mind  in  Ethics.      175 

adequately  re-enforced  itself  with  fresh  views  of  the  facts 
and  processes  of  the  human  mind ;  while  metaphysics, 
so  far  as  it  relates  to  moral  subjects,  has  been  quite 
barren  of  any  practical  fruit.  Thus  the  interest  in  eth- 
ical inquiries  has  been  considerably  diminished.  But  this 
can  be  only  of  temporary  duration.  The  great  and  ever- 
pressing  problems  connected  with  these  inquiries  will 
compel  a  revival  of  the  old  interest  in  them.  Some 
new  turn  in  the  current  of  thought,  like  that  now  being 
pushed  by  Herbert  Spencer  and  his  school,  will  bring 
them  to  the  front  again ;  and  it  is  not  at  all  unlikely  that 
the  time  is  rapidly  approaching  when  the  best  minds  of 
the  age  will  return  to  them  with  renewed  sympathy, 
having  grown  weary  of  pursuits  which,  though  promis- 
ing more  immediate  and  tangible  results,  confine  them 
to  mere  phenomenal  sequences  and  correlations.  Judg- 
ing from  the  past,  as  well  as  from  the  instincts  of  the 
higher  intellect,  it  is  impossible  to  suppose  that  it  will 
be  content  to  grind  much  longer  in  the  mill  of  inquiries 
which  ignore  the  causal  instincts  of  the  mii\d,  when  an- 
other and  grander  realm  of  investigation  is  open  to  it, 
even  that  of  the  will  and  the  moral  sense,  which  are  the 
surest  outlets  for  thought  into  the  region  of  the  absolute. 
Now,  the  ordained  teachers  of  Christian  morality  have 
exhibited  signal  mental  activity  and  acuteness  in  recent 
times,  not  merely  at  this  or  that  threatened  point,  but 
along  the  whole  boundary-line  between  the  ethics  of 
revelation  and  the  ethics  of  the  natural  reason.  They 
have  steadfastly  and  successfully  maintained  the  superi- 
ority of  the  former  over  the  latter  in  many  test  cases, 
and  against  the  most  powerful  and  erudite  objectors. 


176       The  Activity  of  the  Clerical  Mind  in  Ethics. 

Let  us  glance  at  some  of  the  grounds  on  which  this 
assertion  rests. 

It  is  generally  conceded,  that  the  root  difference 
between  ancient  and  modern  ethics,  scientifically  viewed, 
consists  not  in  the  superior  methods  of  the  latter,  nor 
in  the  superior  intelligence  devoted  "to  its  cultivation ; 
but  in  the  higher  plane  on  which  it  has  moved.  In 
closeness,  subtilty,  and  depth  of  analysis,  the  old  Greek 
masters  have  never  been  excelled ;  while  their  methods 
of  investigation,  both  a  priori  and  inductive,  left  little 
for  modern  ethical  thinkers  to  supply.  The  wider 
range  of  experience  afforded  by  the  lapse  of  more  than 
two  thousand  years  has  provided  the  moderns  with 
more  facts,  and  has  thrown  upon  all  facts  in  the  moral 
life  of  man  a  greater  variety  of  lights  and  shadows ; 
but  all  the  elements  and  most  of  the  results  of  modern 
ethical  knowledge,  apart  from  the  contributions  of 
Christianity,  were  as  well  known  by  Plato  and  Aristotle, 
as  by  any  utilitarian  or  intuitional  or  evolutionary  mor- 
alist of  to-day.  In  the  power  to  handle  facts  for  the 
purposes  of  analysis  and  classification,  or  in  searching 
'and  profound  insight  into  the  meaning  of  facts,  there 
has  been  no  perceptible  advance.  But  unquestionably 
modern  ethics  enjoys  a  vantage-ground,  moves  on  a 
plane  of  thought,  to  which  the  moralists  of  antiquity 
were  strangers.  If  this  be  so,  it  brings  us  face  to  face 
with  the  crucial  question,  How  was  this  nobler  van- 
tage-ground, this  higher  plane,  reached?  Was  it  by  the 
orderly  and  consecutive  development  of  natural  ethics 
regarded  as  a  science,  strictly  confined  within  its  own 
limits,  and  attending  to  its  own  business  ?     Was  it  by 


The  Activity  of  the  Clerical  Mind  in  Ethics.      177 

the  continuous  march  of  reason  from  lower  to  higher 
ground  %  Was  it  by  the  discovery  of  some  new  point 
of  departure,  or  some  original  and  more  fruitful  method 
of  research?  Or  was  it  by  the  wider  experience  and 
expanding  progress  of  humanity?  I  answer:  By  none, 
nor  by  all,  apart  from  outside  help.  Modern  ethical 
science  has,  in  the  main,  been  lifted  to  its  present  ele- 
vation, as  has  all  modern  life,  by  a  force  from  without ; 
by  a  force  which  it  did  not  originate,  which  it  cannot 
destroy,  and  which  it  were  a  shame  and  a  damage  to 
ignore ;  and  that  force  is  the  religion  of  Jesus  Christ, 
doctrinally  as  well  as  morally  considered.  This  exter- 
nal lifting  power  has  operated  in  many  ways,  but  in  at 
least  three  with  especial  energy. 

1.  It  has  been  well  said,  "  If  the  thought  of  Plato 
and  Aristotle  was  '  conscious '  as  compared  with  that  of 
the  Seven  Sages,  the  thought  of  modern  times  might  be 
called  '  self-conscious '  as  compared  with  theirs."  The 
ancients  dealt  profoundly  with  all  conceptions  relating 
to  the  object  of  moral  action,  the  good  or  happiness,  and 
the  beautiful  or  virtue.  But  they  rather  lingered  at 
than  crossed  the  threshold  of  the  moral  subject.  They 
treated  vaguely  and  uncertainly  the  deepest  questions 
on  the  subjective  side  of  morals.  They  never  stated 
fully  and  satisfactorily  the  relation  of  the  individual  will 
and  consciousness  to  the  good  in  life  and  action ;  they 
left  no  sure  word  about  a  moral  faculty  in  the  soul,  to 
whose  authority  all  other  powers  were  to  be  subordi- 
nated. They  had  but  a  dim  notion  of  what  we  mean 
by  duty,  by  individual  responsibility,  by  the  moral  affec- 
tions as  related  to  an  outward  moral  law  that  always 


178       The  Activity  of  the  Clerical  Mind  in  Ethics. 

and  everywhere  "  makes  for  righteousness."  Now,  it  is 
this  side  of  morals,  the  inward,  subjective  side,  which 
in  modern  times  has  assumed  paramount  importance. 
When  we  speak  of  duty,  right,  moral  obligation,  we 
mean  things  which  bring  home  to  our  inmost  conscious- 
ness the  moral  quality  of  actions,  and  which  force  us  to 
determine  the  relations  of  accountable  beings  to  God 
and  the  world  around  them.  The  old  problem  whether 
man  can  realize  the  absolute,  the  supreme  end-in-itself, 
by  means  of  noble  actions  and  moments  of  profound 
contemplation,  has  little  interest  for  us.  It  has  been 
superseded  by  another,  —  even  whether  the  absolute,  the 
supreme  end  being  given,  revealed  in  the  Triune  God, 
man  will,  with  all  needful  aids  afforded  him,  obey  Him. 
The  first  thoughts  of  ethics  now  are  not  about  how 
much  happiness  can  be  got  out  of  life,  but.  How  far  can 
this  present  life  be  brought  into  conformity  with  a  per- 
fect will?  It  is  all  well  enough  to  ask  in  a  philosophic 
temper,  What  is  happiness?  What  is  the  chief  good? 
But  it  is  a  vastly  sublimer  thing  to  ask,  What  constitutes 
duty  ?  Why  is  this  thing  right,  and  that  thing  wrong  ? 
and  why  ought  we  to  do  the  one,  and  to  leave  the  other 
undone?  Doubtless,  as  has  been  remarked,  we  may 
find  in  the  thinking  of  the  wisest  of  the  old  masters  of 
moral  speculation  suggestive  hints  and  intimations,  and 
sometimes  a  phraseology,  which  prove  that  they  were 
not  altogether  strangers  to  such  questions.  The  tw  Seov, 
ws  Sci,  etc.,  of  Aristotle,  imply  a  certain  consciousness  of 
the  connection  between  responsibility  and  the  freedom 
of  the  wiU.  But  he  did  not  develop  the  conception. 
He  seems  to  have  gone  little  beyond  the  average  human 


The  Activity  of  the  Clerical  Mind  in  Ethics.      1'79 

instinct  which  says  we  "ought"  to  do  some  things, 
and  not  others.  Clearly  it  was  not  a  leading  conception 
with  him,  and,  if  not  with  him,  then  with  none  who 
preceded  or  immediately  followed  him. 

Says  an  eminent  authority  on  this  point :  — 

"  The  foundation  of  the  ethical  notion  of  duty  is  partly  owing 
to  the  Stoics  ;  but  undoubtedly  the  whole  idea  of  moral  obligation 
and  individual  responsibilit}',  which  goes  to  make  up  its  full  sig- 
nificance, has  taken  hold  of  the  thought  of  mankind  through  and 
by  reason  of  the  long  influence  of  religion  and  theology.  This 
deep  conception  is  now  an  heirloom  of  moral  philosophers ;  and 
they  cannot  get  rid  of  it,  any  more  than  a  man  can  return  to  the 
unconsciousness  of  a  child.  However  comparatively  feeble  may 
be  the  thought  of  any  modern  thinker,  there  is  yet  a  sort  of 
background  to  his  system,  provided  by  the  spirit  of  the  age,  a  con- 
ception which  he  cannot  help  availing  himself  of,  which,  through 
no  merit  of  his  own,  is  on  the  whole  deeper  than  any  thing  which 
Aristotle  (and,  I  ma}-  add,  anj^  writer  unaided  by  revelation)  had 
attained  to."  ^ 

2.  Again :  natural  ethics,  as  we  are  acquainted  with 
it,  is  indebted  for  its  present  standpoint  to  Christian 
Theology  on  another  ground.  The  freedom  of  the  will, 
individual  responsibility,  is  assumed  in  all  its  reason- 
ings. But  how  did  it  happen  that  this  fundamental 
truth  came  to  be  so  well  established  as  to  allow  of  its 
being  thus  taken  for  granted?  Metaphysical  thought 
has  done  much,  but  theological  thought  has  done  more, 
to  place  free-will  in  the  category  of  accepted  truths. 
Democritus  touched  on  the  question  when  he  said,  "  In 
the  whirl  of  necessity,  man  is  only  half  a  slave."  Plato 
asserts  what  is  equivalent  to  it,  at  the  conclusion  of  his 

^  Sir  Alexander  Grant:  Ethics  of  Aristotle,  vol.  i.  p.  313. 


180      The  Activity  of  the  Clerical  Mind  in  Ethics. 

"  Republic : "  notwithstanding  he  made  it  of  no  effect 
by  teaching  the  transmigration  of  souls.  Aristotle 
treated  the  question  neither  metaphysically  nor  theo- 
logically. It  was  mooted  by  the  Stoics,  but  not  devel- 
oped or  established  by  theu'  thinking.  In  the  dawn 
of  modern  speculative  ethics,  it  was  taken  up  with 
great  vigor  and  earnestness  by  those  two  masters  of 
metaphysical  inquiry,  Spinoza  and  Leibnitz.  They, 
however,  worked  at  the  problem  under  the  strong  light 
thrown  upon  it  by  ten  centuries  of  theological  discussion. 
They,  in  fact,  took  it  up  in  its  theological  form :  the 
will  of  God,  —  how  can  it  be  reconciled  with  the  free- 
will of  man]  They  attempted  to  harmonize  the  two 
conceptions  by  finding  some  higher  one  in  which  they 
might  both  be  solved.  Logically  they  both  failed. 
Spinoza  drifted  into  the  mazes  of  pantheism ;  and 
Leibnitz,  after  a  vast  outlay  of  learning  and  subtilty, 
ended  in  assuming  what  he  set  out  to  prove.  It  would 
be  idle  to  enumerate  the  writers  who  came  after  them. 
The  result  was  the  same.  They  either  proved  too  much 
or  too  little.  Free-will  is  a  fact  of  consciousness,  and 
falls  within  the  domain  of  man's  moral  nature,  —  a 
domain  where  many  things  are  true  which  cannot  be 
demonstrated. 

This  question  of  the  freedom  of  the  will  has  two 
forms,  —  either  theological,  in  relation  to  the  will  of 
God;  or  metaphysical,  in  relation  to  the  law  of  cause 
and  effect  in  the  order  of  nature.  It  may  be  asked, 
How  is  this  freedom  compatible  with  the  sovereignty  of 
God  ■?  or  how  can  it  be  reconciled  with  the  unalterable 
sequence  of  cause  and  effect  in  nature  \     Is  the  will  a 


The  Activitj/  of  the  Clei'ical  Mind  in  Ethics.      181 

cause  only,  or  is  it  also  an  effect  ?  Now,  I  shall  not 
stop  to  inquire  how  far  the  ethics  of  reason,  of  science, 
is  indebted  to  the  discussion  of  the  metaphysical  side  of 
this  question.  It  is  enough  to  say  that  it  owes  far 
more  to  the  discussion  of  the  theological  side  of  it ;  and 
for  these  reasons.  The  question  in  all  its  far-reaching 
consequences  was  forced  upon  the  theological  mind  by 
the  collision  in  the  Church  of  rival  theories  of  the  origin 
and  nature  of  the  religious  life ;  and  this  some  ten  cen- 
turies before  it  was  deemed  of  sufficient  interest  to  the 
general  philosophic  mind  to  induce  any  elaborate  attempt 
at  its  independent  treatment.  St.  Augustine,  in  his 
famous  controversy  with  Pelagius,  exhausted  the  ca- 
pacity of  the  human  mind  for  dealing  with  it.  He 
touched  the  limit  of  human  thought,  and  all  beyond  the 
boundary  he  reached  was  unknowable.  He  handled  it 
with  the  intense  fervor  of  a  Christian  who  believed  that 
the  verities  of  his  religion  were  staked  on  the  issue ; 
and,  at  the  same  time,  with  a  subtle  insight  and  keen 
analysis  which  no  modern  thinker  has  surpassed.  He 
may  be  said  to  have  been  the  founder  and  master  of  the 
literature  of  the  will.  The  schoolmen  eddied  around 
him  as  the  fountain-head  of  all  safe  thinking  on  the 
subject.  Calvin  only  repeated  his  conclusions  with  some 
damaging  exaggerations;  and  Jonathan  Edwards  did 
little  more  than  recast  his  thoughts  in  a  modern  mould 
and  in  the  interest  of  Calvin's  theology.  When  the 
ablest  metaphysicians  of  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth 
centuries  grappled  with  the  problem,  they  could  not 
escape  his  influence,  nor  rid  themselves  of  the  forms 
of  language  which  he  had  indelibly  graven  upon  the 
common  memory. 


182       The  Activity  of  the  Clerical  Mind  in  Ethics. 

Again  :  it  must  be  admitted  that  the  theological  side 
of  the  question  is  the  higher  and  more  difficult  one,  and 
that  to  handle  this  side  of  it  with  thoroughness  is  to 
include  the  substance  of  all  that  can  be  said  on  the 
metaphysical  side,  and  vastly  more.  Metaphysics  treats 
it  as  a  purely  speculative  question.  Theology  treats  it 
as  the  most  intensely  practical  one  imaginable,  and, 
therefore,  in  such  way  as  to  make  its  conclusions  imme- 
diately available  to  ethics,  which  is  the  science  of  conduct 
as  well  as  the  science  of  moral  thought. 

3.  But  there  is  still  another  debt  to  be  charged  to 
the  account  of  natural  ethics,  arising  from  what  Chris- 
tian morality  has  done  to  define  and  fix  the  ultimate 
ground  of  moral  obligation.  This  is  a  wide  subject, 
and  I  regret  to  be  compelled  to  treat  it  with  the  brevity 
which  the  limits  assigned  to  this  branch  of  the  dis- 
cusion  render  necessary.  The  fundamental  points  in 
moral  science,  around  w^hich  all  others  may  be  grouped, 
are  the  moral  standard  and  the  moral  sanction.  The 
former  answers  the  question.  How  do  we  ascertain  what 
is  right  ?  The  latter  answers  the  question,  "What  con- 
strains us  to  do  it  ?  Every  one  is  persuaded  that  he 
ought  to  do  what  is  right ;  but  every  one  is  not  clear 
as  to  the  answer  when  he  asks  himself,  Why  ought  I  ? 
or,  WJiy  is  this  right,  and  that  wrong  %  Now,  all  cri- 
terions  of  rightness  in  an  action  are  reducible  to  four. 
The  first,  that  of  the  inductive  or  utilitarian  moralist, 
consists  in  the  tendency  to  promote  the  general  well- 
being  or  happiness,  —  a  criterion  resting  on  man's  own 
experience  of  the  effects  of  human  action,  and  appeal- 
ing to  motives  which,  however  refined  and  expanded. 


The  Activity  of  the  Clerical  Mind  in  Ethics.       183 

are  still  those  of  self-love  and  prudence.  The  second, 
that  of  the  intuitive  moralist,  springs  from  instinctive 
preferences,  and  an  inborn  consciousness  of  obligation, 
which  incline  us  to  what  is  right,  apart  from  all  reason- 
ing or  experience.  The  third,  that  of  the  evolutionist, 
substitutes  in  all  moral  development  the  operation  of 
natural  law  for  the  exercise  of  free-will ;  affirming,  that, 
as  the  fitter  organism  survives  the  less  fit,  so  must 
moral  conduct  in  the  natural  course  of  things  gain  the 
upper  hand,  and  immoral  conduct  tend  more  and  more 
toward  extinction  ;  that  conduct  is  good  as  it  is  adapted 
to  the  preservation  of  self  and  the  race,  and  bad  as  it 
makes  for  the  opposite  result ;  that  by  necessary  and 
immutable  laws,  excluding  all  permanent  or  fatal  inter- 
ference of  will-power,  higher  forms  of  conduct  and 
character  must  be  evolved  from  the  successive  ante- 
cedent stages  of  conduct  and  character,  precisely,  and 
as  part  of  the  same  necessary  action  of  nature,  as 
higher  organisms  are  evolved  from  lower ;  that  virtue 
and  happiness  are  the  one  inseparable  goal  which  man 
approaches  by  a  steady,  irresistible  advance,  free  at 
every  step  from  the  struggle  and  the  pain  of  conscious 
choice :  or,  briefly,  that  the  evolution  of  nature  is  also 
the  evolution  of  morality,  and  that,  as  nature  in  and  of 
itself  produces  better  and  better  crops  of  vegetable  and 
animal  life,  so  by  an  equally  certain  law  it  produces  in 
and  of  itself,  in  the  sphere  of  humanity,  higher  and 
higher  forms  of  moral  life.  Fourthly,  and  finally,  there 
is  the  criterion  of  the  Christian  moralist,  grounded  upon 
the  will  of  God  as  expressed  in  revelation  and  in  the 
providential  moral  government  of  the  world.     Accord- 


184       The  Activity  of  the  Clerical  Mind  in  Ethics. 

ing  to  this,  what  is  right  for  us  to  do  is  what  God  wills, 
and  the  ultimate  reason  why  we  ought  to  do  it  is  be- 
cause God  wills  it.  In  Christian  ethics  there  is  nothing 
more  fundamental  or  ultimate  than  these  two  principles 
which  thus  coalesce  into  one.  Thus  Christian  morality 
finds  its  ground  or  criterion,  and  with  this  its  constrain- 
ing energy,  in  one  and  the  same  thing,  —  the  perfect 
will  of  the  only  perfect  Being  in  the  universe,  —  the 
one  God  and  Father  of  all ;  and  thus,  too,  it  is  enabled 
to  give  the  simplest  and  completest  answer  possible  to 
both  the  ever-recurring  questions.  What  is  right  %  and, 
Why  ought  I  to  do  what  is  right  ? 

Now,  it  is  reasonably  certain,  that  none  of  these  crite- 
ria of  natural  ethics  could,  independently  of  the  Chris- 
tian, have  ever  lifted  man  to  the  moral  plane  on  which 
he  now  stands ;  and  it  is  equally  certain,  that  none  of 
them  when  developed  into  a  practical  system  could, 
without  the  Christian,  permanently  sway  the  conduct 
and  character  of  men  in  their  present  stage  of  intellect- 
ual and  moral  development^  There  is  little  doubt,  that 
many  thoughtful  minds  are  content  to  rest  in  one  or 
the  other  of  these  speculative  theories,  because  to  do 
so  gratifies  the  philosophic  instinct  and  longing  for  a 
plausible,  rational  solution  of  the  problem ;  and  because 
they  know,  that,  when  driven  to  it  by  the  perplexities 
and  mysteries  of  life,  they  can  find  a  safe  refuge  from 
the  shortcomings  of  speculation,  in  the  bosom  of  that 
Divine  rule  in  which  there  is  no  variableness  nor  shadow 
of  turning,  —  a  rule  whose  statutes  rejoice  the  heart, 
and  give  light  to  the  eyes ;  a  pure  and  undefiled  law, 
which  converteth  the  soul,  and  giveth  wisdom  to  the 
simple. 


The  Activity  of  the  Clerical  Mind  in  Ethics.       185 

It  has  been  in  fundamental  matters  like  these,  that 
Christian  has  given  a  helping  hand  to  natural  ethics, 
lifting  it  to  the  high  ground  which  it  now  occupies,  and 
holding  firm  the  moral  convictions  of  mankind,  amid 
all  its  gaps  and  fluctuations,  its  marches  and  counter- 
marches, in  the  wide  field  of  speculative  or  inductive 
inquiry.  The  service  thus  rendered  is  not  the  less 
certain  or  valuable  because  it  has  been  often  disowned. 
Ingratitude  is  a  crime  not  confined  to  the  every-day 
world  of  feeling  and  action.  The  pride  and  self-sufii- 
ciency  of  the  human  intellect  make  it  possible  wherever 
they  prevail.  While  rejoicing  in  every  successful  ven- 
ture of  the  human  mind  in  the  department  of  ethical 
thought,  the  teachers  of  the  ethics  of  revelation  could 
not  shut  their  eyes  to  the  inherent  defects  and  weak- 
nesses of  the  systems  elaborated  by  unaided  reason; 
and  they  have  not,  as  in  duty  bound,  hesitated  to 
expose  them.  They  have  performed  this  task  with  a 
candor  and  charity  worthy  of  the  lofty  vantage-ground 
they  occupy,  but  only  very  "imperfectly  appreciated  by 
those  in  whose  behalf  they  have  been  exercised. 

The  scheme  of  inductive  or  utilitarian  morals  can 
never  escape  criticism,  because  it  can  never  cover  up  its 
radical  weakness.  It  is  a  wavering,  one-sided  transcript 
of  the  facts  of  consciousness,  and  a  lame  copy  of  man's 
moral  experience.  By  no  possible  jugglery  of  logic,  by 
no  manipulations  of  language  however  adroit,  by  no  re- 
finements of  metaphysical  distinctions,  can  pleasure  and 
duty,  the  calculations  of  prudence  and  the  spontaneous 
mandates  of  the  voice  within,  be  made  to  change  places, 
or  to  appear  as  only  opposite  sides  of  the  same  thing. 


186       The  Activity  of  the  Clerical  Mind  in  Ethics. 

There  is  a  gulf  between  them  which  may  be  bridged, 
but  cannot  be  ignored.  It  may  be  true  that  pleasure  in 
some  form  attends  all  virtuous  action ;  but  it  does  so  as 
the  consequent,  not  the  antecedent,  of  choice.  The 
higher  the  soul  advances  in  virtue,  the  more  it  delights 
in  it.  But  it  is  no  less  true  that  in  our  present  mixed 
and  struggling  condition  there  are  many  acts  enforced 
by  conscience  in  which  there  is  but  the  faintest  trace  of 
pleasurable  satisfaction.  The  acts  are  done  at  the  bid- 
ding of  simple  duty,  and  not  because  they  are  pleasant. 
To  give  self-love  the  foremost  place  in  moral  conduct, 
whether  as  entering  into  its  nature  or  operating  as  its 
mainspring,  is  to  rob  such  conduct  of  every  vestige  of 
unselfishness.  Dr.  Newman  in  a  few  sharp-cut  sen- 
tences goes  to  the  core  of  this  whole  theory  of  utility 
or  pleasure  as  the  ground  and  sanction  of  moral  action. 
"  All  virtue  and  goodness  tend  to  make  men  powerful 
in  this  world,  but  they  who  aim  at  the  power  have  not 
the  virtue.  Again,  virtue  is  its  own  reward,  and  brings 
with  it  the  truest  and  highest  pleasures ;  but  they  who 
cultivate  it  for  the  pleasure's  sake  are  selfish,  not  reli- 
gious, and  will  never  have  the  pleasure  because  they  will 
never  have  the  vu'tue."  No  principle  in  ethics  is  better 
established  than  this ;  and  our  every-day  experience 
furnishes  abundant  illustrations  of  its  truth.  The  world 
over,  the  pleasui*e-seeker  is  not  the  pleasure-finder,  and 
the  happiest  men  are  they  who  think  least  about  happi- 
ness. If  any  thing  is  demonstrably  certain  in  morals,  it 
is  that  the  motive  on  which  the  utilitarian,  the  epicu- 
rean, the  pleasure-seeking  moralist,  chiefly  relies,  is  the 
attendent  shadow  of  moral  action,  not  its  substance,  not 
its  end,  nor  its  propelling  power. 


The  Activity  of  the  Clerical  Mind  in  Ethics.      187 

On  the  other  hand,  the  theory  of  moral  action  which 
rests  upon  the  intuitions  of  the  moral  nature,  or  upon 
the  authoritative  and  spontaneous  mandates  of  the  con- 
science, is  scarcely  more  satisfactory,  though  it  is  clothed 
with  greater  dignity,  stands  on  higher  ground,  and  ap- 
peals to  the  nobler  side  of  our  nature.  Practically,  it 
is  weak  and  inefficient  in  spite  of  its  lofty  claims  and 
unselfish  aspirations.  It  is  impossible  to  agree  upon  the 
number,  or  the  exact  quality  and  range,  of  these  intui- 
tional judgments.  They  vary  widely  in  different  indi- 
viduals, and  are  absolutely  dependent  on  the  fluctuating 
attainments  of  the  intellect.  There  are  many  things 
about  them  in  regard  to  which  we  have  little  definite 
knowledge.  We  know  not,  after  all  the  current  wis- 
dom on  the  subject  has  been  sifted,  the  exact  nature  of 
conscience,  or  how  it  pronounces,  or  to  what  extent  it  is 
infallible,  or  precisely  in  what  ways  it  is  related  to  the 
will  and  the  reason. 

As  for  the  evolutional  theory, — just  now,  because  the 
latest,  attracting  most  attention  from  the  students  of 
ethics,  —  its  radical  and  sweeping  generalizations  leave 
scarcely  standing-ground  for  its  natural  rivals.  The 
lineal  descendant,  in  its  hedonistic  proclivities,  of  utili- 
tarianism, it  ruthlessly  lays  hands  upon  its  progenitor ; 
while  out  of  the  intuitional  theory,  whether  in  its  looser 
forms  or  under  the  rigorous  treatment  of  Kant,  it  cuts 
the  very  heart  by  substituting  for  the  free  play  of  the 
will  and  conscience,  the  operation  of  necessary  natural 
law.  But  in  doing  so,  it  discloses  certain  fatal  gaps  in 
itself.  If  nature  evolves  morality  as  it  evolves  every 
thing  else,  choice  has  nothing  to  do  with  it ;  and  so  the 


188       The  Activity  of  the  Clerical  Mind  in  Ethics. 

moral  nature  and  all  moral  action  cease  to  be  what  the 
thought  and  experience  of  mankind  have  hitherto  uni- 
versally believed  them  to  be.  Moral  liberty  is  gener- 
alized out  of  existence ;  and  we  are  are  shut  up,  in  the 
explanation  of  all  ethical  phenomena,  to  necessity  as  the 
only  motive-power.  Herbert  Spencer  tells  us  plainly 
that  "  the  sense  of  duty  is  transitory ; "  ^  that  as  evolution 
progresses,  man  will  do  or  forbear  simply  out  of  regard 
for  the  intrinsic  effects  of  acts ;  that  as  he  advances  in 
the  performance  of  the  right,  —  i.e.,  what  tends  to  the 
improvement  and  preservation  of  himself  and  the  race, 
—  the  pleasure  of  doing  so  will  increase,  and  that  the 
sense  of  duty  as  obligation  will  disappear  as  it  becomes 
pleasant  for  him  and  natural  to  do  right.  So  that  we 
have  hedonism  as  the  ultimate  goal  of  evolution,  and 
necessity  as  the  one  power  that  impels  man  toward  it. 

But,  further,  Mr.  Spencer  and  all  the  ethical  scientists 
of  his  school  —  as  well  as  of  other  schools  that,  how- 
ever they  differ,  agree  in  the  attempt  to  bring  all  moral 
phenomena  under  the  sway  of  universal  and  necessary 
natural  law  —  ignore  the  chasm  between  conscious  life 
and  unconscious  life  as  though  in  reality  no  such  chasm 
exists.  In  doing  so  they  beg  the  whole  question,  and  to 
the  full  extent  that  they  do  so,  vitiate,  philosophically 
considered,  from  top  to  bottom  the  results  at  which  they 
arrive.  Deep  as  this  chasm  is  in  biological  and  psycho- 
logical science,  it  is,  if  possible,  still  deeper  in  ethics ;  or, 
if  not  deeper  in  reality,  it  makes  itself  more  deeply  felt. 
Conduct,  we  are  told,  has  as  its  essential  mark  the  adap- 
tation of  means  to  ends.     But  if  this  be  all,  or  even  the 

1  Data  of  Ethics,  p.  127. 


The  Activity  of  the  Clerical  Mitid  in  Ethics.      189 

chief  mark  of  conduct,  conduct  may  be  predicated  indif- 
ferently of  a  dog  and  of  a  man ;  though  as  matter  of  fact 
a  dog's  adaptation  of  means  to  ends  is  unconscious,  a 
man's  conscious.  A  dog's  cannot  have  a  moral  end,  a 
man's  may.  The  gulf  between  is  absolutely  incommen- 
surable. The  human  mind  can  never  accept  the  moral 
life  as  the  development  of  the  natural,  or  allow  the  free 
to  be  swallowed  up  in  or  confounded  with  the  necessary, 
until  it  shall  be  able  to  unthink  its  own  spontaneous 
judgments,  and  to  unlearn  the  meaning,  and  force  of 
language  which  is  at  once  the  echo  and  utterance  of  its 
own  laws  of  thought. 

Again :  evolution  no  more  explains  the  primal  cause 
in  ethics  than  in  the  sphere  of  cosmical  and  biological 
phenomena,  or  in  the  world  of  thought  and  history.  It 
deals  solely  with  sequences  in  their  serial  form,  without 
a  beginning  and  without  an  end.  And  yet  Mr.  Spencer, 
when  he  would  overthrow  the  posivitist  formula  of  Comte, 
does  not  scruple  to  say  that  "  the  idea  of  cause  will  gov- 
ern at  the  end,  as  it  has  done  at  the  beginning.  The 
idea  of  cause  cannot  be  abolished  except  by  the  abolition 
of  thought  itself."  ^  And  so  a  late  writer,'^  after  a  glow- 
ing eulogy  on  the  transcendent  merits  of  "  The  Data  of 
Ethics,"  is  forced  to  admit  that  its  author,  the  greatest  of 
living  explorers  in  this  field,  has  failed  to  solve  the  one 
problem  most  needing  solution, — the  fundamental  prin- 
ciple of  absolute  ethics,  the  ethical  criterion  of  action,  the 
ultimate  ground,  the  primal  cause,  of  moral  obligation. 

^  See  Spencer's  Reasons  for  dissenting  from  the  Philosophy  of  M. 
Comte,  third  edition,  1871. 

2  Frederick  Von  Baerenbach:  Popular  Science  Monthly,  June,  1883. 


190       The  Activity  of  the  Clerical  Mind  in  Ethics. 

At  the  same  time,  while  Christian  ethics  discovers 
such  radical  defects  in  the  systems  set  up  to  compete 
with  it,  it  is  not  insensible  to  thek  value,  nor  slow  to 
appropriate  the  good  they  contain.  In  many  of  the  de- 
tails of  life  involving  issues  of  duty  and  in  regard  to 
which  the  general  rules  of  conduct  resting  upon  the  will 
of  God  admit  of  a  doubt  as  to  their  practical  application, 
it  is  ready  to  accept,  within  certain  limits,  the  criterion 
of  experience  as  fully  and  freely  as  any  utilitarian  could 
desire ;  while  in  other  directions  it  is  glad  to  call  to  its 
side,  in  battling  with  man's  lower  nature,  whatever  con- 
firmations of  its  divine  mandates  his  higher  nature  may 
be  able  to  furnish  through  its  moral  intuitions,  together 
with  all  supports  afforded  by  the  inherent  trend  of 
nature  as  explained  by  evolution. 

But  here  it  should  be  noted,  that  Christian  ethics, 
however  ably  handled  by  its  expounders,  has  not  itself 
escaped  criticism.  It  has  been  summoned  to  appear  at 
the  bar  of  modern  thought  to  answer  for  its  own  alleged 
shortcomings.  If  there  was  any  one  thing  within  the 
range  of  human  inquiry,  that,  up  to  very  recent  times, 
was  considered  'faultless,  and  therefore  exempt  from 
challenge,  it  was  the  morality  of  the  Christian  religion. 
That  it  should  have  been  called  in  question  at  last,  is 
perhaps  the  most  striking  of  all  proofs  of  the  unsparing 
and  remorseless  temper  in  which  the  criticism  of  the 
day  has  attacked  all  things  within  its  reach.  Whatever 
stray  insinuations  might  have  dropped  from  gainsayers 
in  times  gone  by,  it  was  reserved  for  one  of  the  most 
distinguished  metaphysicians  and  philosophic  moralists 
of  this  generation  to  formulate  them.^     He  declares, 

1  John  Stuart  Mill. 


The  Activity  of  the  Clerical  Mind  in  Ethics.      191 

strangely  enough,  that  Christian  morality  is  negative 
rather  than  positive,  passive  rather  than  active  ;  that  it 
enjoins  abstinence  from  evil,  rather  than  the  energetic 
pursuit  of  good ;  and,  therefore,  that  it  has  the  imper- 
fection of  one-sidedness,  and  cannot  guide  humanity  to 
a  full-orbed  development  of  its  moral  nature,  but  must 
be  supplemented  by  the  teachings  of  systems  which, 
because  they  are  of  human  origin,  it  complacently  affects 
to  patronize.  To  refute  this,  we  have  only  to  cite  cer- 
tain indisputable  facts.  At  least  one-half  of  the  New 
Testament  is  given  to  the  inculcation  of  positive  moral- 
ity. It  rings  with  appeals  to  mankind,  not  only  to  be 
good,  but  to  do  good ;  not  only  to  save  themselves,  but 
to  save  others ;  not  only  to  abstain  from  evil,  but  to  be 
habitually  active  in  works  of  love  and  mercy ;  not  only 
to  obey  the  Divine  will,  but  to  be  energetic  in  teaching 
all  men  to  know  and  obey  that  Tvill.  If  it  magnifies 
what  are  called  the  passive  virtues,  it  does  so  because  it 
is  the  tendency  of  the  world  to  depreciate  them ;  but  in 
doing  so  it  utters  not  a  word  which,  fairly  construed, 
disparages  the  active  virtues.  It  is,  indeed,  the  oracle 
of  the  most  aggressive  of  all  religions,  —  of  a  religion 
which  must  move  on  or  perish ;  which  must  conquer  all 
adversaries,  or  be  driven  from  the  field.  Energy,  action, 
conflict,  struggle,  expansion,  are  the  life  of  the  faith  it 
preaches.  Its  disciples  are  not  only  servants  disciplined 
into  submission,  but  soldiers  sent  forth  to  battle.  In 
soft  and  tender  natures,  unequal  to  the  solemn  strife,  it 
tolerates,  but  does  not  encourage,  a  life  of  quietism  and 
contemplation.  Over  and  around  all  the  tranquil  haunts 
in  which  such  natures  have  sought  refuge  from  outward 


192       The  Activity  of  the  Clerical  Mind  in  Ethics. 

tumult  and  contradiction,  has  been  heard  from  the  be- 
ginning the  trumpet  of  the  great  militant  host  sounding 
to  the  charge.  There  is  nothing  in  all  history  so  aston- 
ishing or  so  sublime  as  the  sustained  and  indomitable 
courage  and  persistency  with  which  Christian  believers 
have,  from  the  start,  toiled  and  fought  and  suffered  to 
change  the  face  of  the  world.  Their  philanthropic  love 
has,  time  and  again,  melted  the  cruel  frost  of  the  world's 
selfishness.  Their  missions  have  gone  out  into  all  lands 
and  among  all  races.  Their  homes,  asylums,  and  hos- 
pitals are  now,  and  have  been  during  all  the  Christian 
centuries,  the  only  solid  and  safe  barriers  lifted  up 
between  humanity  and  the  thousand  forms  of  wretched- 
ness whose  despairing  wail  has  been  the  sad  song  of 
its  earthly  pilgrimage.  And  their  schools  of  learning, 
always  the  spontaneous  fruit  of  their  reverence  for  all 
that  can  ennoble  human  reason,  as  for  many  ages  they 
were  the  only  centres  of  intellectual  light,  so  have  they 
been,  in  later  times,  the  originators  and  patrons  of  nearly 
all  the  great  educational  movements  which  have  fash- 
ioned the  moral  and  intellectual  elements  of  modern 
civilization.  A  religion  of  submission  and  resignation, 
indeed !  a  religion  of  passive  obedience  and  mystic 
fervor !  a  religion  of  abstinence  from  evil,  and  retire- 
ment from  the  glare  and  heat  of  the  world's  favorite 
ambitions !  All  this  it  is ;  but  it  is  also  the  most 
imresting,  the  most  revolutionary  and  aggressive  force, 
ever  brought  to  bear  upon  the  life  of  man. 

But  there  yet  remains  to  be  mentioned  one  fact 
which  of  itself  sufficiently  refutes  Mr.  Mill's  assertion. 
It  was  undeniably  the  chief  work  of  Christ  as  a  moral 


The  Activity  of  the  Clerical  Mind  in  Ethics.       193 

teacher,  to  change  the  negative  law  of  the  Jews  into  the 
positive  law  of  Christians.  In  doing  this  he  radically 
transformed  the  whole  spirit  of  morality ;  and  wedged 
the  lesson  into  the  inmost  consciousness  of  his  followers, 
that,  to  glorify  God  and  to  serve  Him,  they  must,  as  the 
habit  of  their  lives,  be  doers  as  well  as  teachers  of 
righteousness.  To  enlarge  on  so  elementary  and  uni- 
versally admitted  a  fact  as  this,  would  be  sheer  waste 
of  words.  And  with  this  one  fact  staring  him  in  the 
face  from  so  many  pages  of  the  New  Testament,  it 
passes  comprehension  how  a  writer,  generally  so  candid 
as  Mr.  Mill,  should  have  been  tempted  to  make  a  state- 
ment so  groundless,  and  yet  so  very  comforting  to  the 
gainsayers  of  Gospel  morality. 

But  the  strong  point  of  Christian  ethics,  that  around 
which  gather  the  homage  and  admiration  of  truth-loving 
souls  of  every  name  and  every  creed,  still  awaits  our 
notice.  I  mean  the  superiority  of  Christian  over  natu- 
ral ethics  in  that  greatest  of  tasks,  —  the  development 
and  formation  of  individual  character.  This,  after  all, 
is  the  real  object  of  moral  science.  What  makes  char- 
acter, what  mars  it,  its  perfection  and  destiny,  - —  these 
are  the  supreme  aims  of  every  ethical  system  that  man- 
kind have  cared  to  remember.  On  them  all  moral 
speculations,  investigations,  and  reasonings  converge. 
And  it  is  only  when  we  duly  consider  these  aims,  and 
the  various  means  employed  to  attain  them,  that  we 
fully  realize  how  immeasurably  the  moral  system  of 
Christianity  transcends  every  scheme  of  human  inven- 
tion. Here  we  are  on  ground  where  we  can  tread 
firmly  and  fearlessly  in  the  presence  of  all  adversaries. 


194       The  Activity  of  the  Clerical  Mind  in  Ethics. 

It  has  been  said  that  "  the  chief  good  is  a  good  will." 
The  highest  type  of  human  character  is  the  flower 
whose  root  is  a  completely  fashioned  will.  How,  then, 
in  contrast  with  all  other  schemes  of  moral  nurture,  does 
Christian  ethics  plant  this  root,  and  grow  this  flower? 
The  answer  is  twofold :  first,  by  the  ideal  it  presents ; 
and,  second,  by  the  moral  and  spiritual  tonic  which  it 
supplies,  to  enable  man  to  grow  up  into  a  likeness  to 
this  ideal.  The  ideal  and  the  tonic,  the  end  and  the 
energy  to  attain  it,  the  perfect  life  and  the  road  that 
leads  to  it,  are  exclusively  the  property  of  the  religion 
of  the  Son  of  God.  When  I  speak  thus  of  the  Chris- 
tian ideal,  I  do  not  forget  the  worth  and  grandeur  of 
the  only  ideal  ever  put  in  competition  with  it,  —  that 
of  the  ancient  Stoics,  which,  as  we  study  it  in  history, 
appears  all  the  nobler  from  its  contrast  with  the  more 
languid  and  sensuous  ideal  framed  by  the  school  of 
Epicurus.  The  aim  of  the  ideal  wise  man  of  the  Stoics 
was  not  the  pursuit  of  wisdom  for  its  own  sake,  but 
rather  to  incorporate  the  results  of  wisdom  with  the  will 
and  character.  He  conceived  of  life  as  a  progress,  a 
conflict,  a  good  fight  between  "  the  law  of  the  spirit " 
and  "  the  law  of  the  members."  His  dominant  purpose 
was  instinct  with  the  spirit  of  aspiration  and  eflbrt,  and 
afiiliated  spontaneously  with  a  tendency  to  asceticism 
and  a  constant  striving  after  the  victory  of  the  will. 
He  was  regarded  as  infallible,  impassive,  and  incapable 
of  harm  from  any  external  cause.  He  was  alone  free, 
alone  king  and  priest,  alone  capable  of  friendship  and 
afl'ection.  At  first,  as  portrayed  by  Zeno,  he  was  a 
stern    and   pitiless   being,  who   waged   unsparing  war 


The  Activity  of  the  Clerical  Mind  in  Ethics.      195 

against  every  softer  emotion  as  a  weakness.  He  for- 
gave no  one,  and  hated  the  doer  of  evil  more  than  the 
evil  done.  Later  on,  he  was  toned  down,  during  sub- 
sequent transmutations  of  the  stoical  principle,  until  the 
rough  hardness  and  lofty  isolation  of  the  earlier  type 
were  blended  with  the  firm  but  gentle  self-discipline 
of  Epictetus  and  Marcus  Aurelius.  Speaking  gener- 
ally, this  ideal,  the  grandest  ever  conceived  by  unaided 
reason,  preferred  the  delights  of  an  inner  life  to  all 
sensible  enjoyments  however  innocent.  It  drew  the 
mind  away  from  external  things,  and  absorbed  it  in  the 
contemplation  of  moral  ideas  and  abstract  principles. 
It  rejoiced  in  the  conception  of  moral  progress,  and  the 
triumphs  of  the  soul  over  outward  crosses.  It  fore- 
shadowed rather  than  developed  the  thought  of  duty, 
and  the  responsibility  of  the  individual,  as  we  under- 
stand them.  It  had  inspii*ing  glimpses  of  the  sublime 
conception  of  mankind  as  one  brotherhood,  and  of  each 
member  as  standing  in  direct  relation  to  God ;  and,  as 
it  more  and  more  filled  itself  out  in  thought  and  ex- 
perience, it  became  at  last  intensely  theological  in  its 
views.  It  went  as  far  as  any  thing  human  can  go 
toward  supplying  the  needs  of  the  soul,  and  the  crav- 
ing for  a  spiritual  religion.  It  was  the  nearest  ap- 
proach made  by  the  Pagan  mind  to  the  sunlit  summit 
of  the  Mount  of  God.  And  yet  it  was  very  far  from 
scaling  the  solemn  height.  Fruitful  as  it  was  of  moral 
greatness,  amid  the  world's  dreary  mediocrity  and  its 
passionate  scramble  after  the  grosser  pleasures  of  sense, 
it  could  not  hide  its  inherent  one-side  dness  and  un- 
natural and  paradoxical  character.     The  print  of  the  iron 


196       The  Activity  of  the  Clerical  Mind  in  Ethics. 

shoe  was  upon  its  feet,  and  the  marks  of  the  band  of 
steel  were  upon  its  brow.  It  was  a  hotbed  of  egotism 
and  pride.  It  fostered  narrowness,  and  harshness,  and 
gloominess  of  temper,  and  was  at  war  with  the  ameni- 
ties and  genialities  of  life.  It  stimulated  men  to  live 
above  the  world,  but  could  not  teach  them  how  to  use 
the  world  as  not  abusing  it.  This  ideal  has  passed 
away,  but  the  spirit  of  it  has  continued  and  will  con- 
tinue to  reproduce  itself  in  the  world.  It  survives 
to-day  in  every  known  form  of  religious  asceticism ;  and 
breathes  gently,  not  only  through  the  fatalistic  gloom 
of  pure  Calvinism,  but,  in  some  sense,  through  the  lives 
of  all  who  are  content  to  "  shun  delights,  and  live  labo- 
rious days."  But  it  must  be  added,  that,  whatever 
their  picture  of  the  ideal  man,  the  Stoics  were  obliged 
to  confess  that  such  a  character  did  not  exist,  and  that 
it  never  had  existed.  Imperfect  as  we  see  it  to  have 
been,  it  was  yet  too  perfect  to  be  realized. 

Now,  alongside  this  place  the  Christian  ideal  of  char- 
acter, the  Christian  conception  of  a  perfectly  moulded 
will.  This  has  been  described  too  often,  and  is  too 
familiar,  to  require  its  reproduction  here  in  detail.  It 
is  only  as  we  gaze  upon  this  until  our  moral  perception 
burns  with  the  rapture  of  adoration,  that  we  can  esti- 
mate the  fulcrum  on  which  has  rested  the  spiritual 
leverage  of  Christianity. 

But  without  dwelling  on  this,  I  pass  on  to  speak  of 
the  dynamic  gifts  which  Christian  ethics  has  conferred 
upon  man  in  his  efforts  to  realize  the  ideal  life  exem- 
plified by  our  Divine  Master.  We  can  hardly  appreciate 
these  gifts,  so  peculiar  to  our  religion  and  so  transcend- 


The  Activity  of  the  Clerical  Mind  in  Ethics.       197 

ent  in  themselves,  without  first  taking  a  hurried  glance  at 
what  has  been  done  or  attempted  in  the  same  direction  by 
other  systems,  ancient  and  modern.  And  here  we  must 
recall  a  fact  of  commanding  influence  in  this  line  of  in- 
quiry ;  a  fact,  too,  whose  existence  none  will  presume  to 
question.  Confused  and  imperfect  as  men's  notions  of 
right  may  be,  it  is  not  knowledge  of  right  they  lack : 
it  is  the  will  and  power  to  do  it.  St.  Paul  formulated 
this  fact  with  an  accuracy  and  completeness  which  leave 
nothing  to  be  amended  or  added:  "  To  will  is  present  with 
me,  but  how  to  perform  that  which  is  good  I  find  not."^ 
It  is  not  difficult  to  portray  ideals  of  goodness,  or  to  set 
up  the  imaginary  wise  man.  The  separate  elements  of 
the  perfect  life  may  be  found  here  and  there,  —  one  in 
this  character,  and  another  in  that.  It  is  easy  to  collect 
them,  and  organize  them  into  an  abstract  unity,  over 
which  philosophers  may  wax  eloquent,  and  poets  may 
dream  in  lofty  verse.  But  it  must  be  the  main  question 
in  every  moral  system  that  proposes  to  unfold  and  shape 
the  character  of  man,  how  is  human  life  in  its  every-day 
^  aspect  to  be  raised  to  the  level  of  such  standards,  to  be 
moulded  after  such  a  pattern]  Now,  it  so  happens  that 
the  weakest  point  in  every  scheme  of  natural  ethics  is 
the  answer  which  it  gives  to  this  question ;  while  the 
answer  given  by  Christian  ethics  is  its  peculiar  and  dis- 
tinctive strength,  —  the  one  chief  ground  at  once  of  its 
theoretical  and  practical  superiority.  Let  us  see,  then, 
how  this  question  of  moral  dynamics  has  been  handled. 
Plato  found  the  motive-power,  such  as  it  was,  in  the 
simple  beholding  of  the  good  and  true,  in  the  education 

^  Rom.  vii.  18. 


198       The  Activity  of  the  Clerical  Mind  in  Ethics. 

and  elevation  of  the  reason.  But  he  confessed  that  this 
could  be  the  privilege  only  of  the  few,  not  of  the  many. 
Only  here  and  there  did  he  expect  to  find  a  soul  that 
could  be  kindled  into  spiritual  fervor  by  the  ecstatic  vis- 
ion of  the  absolute.  Of  the  mass  of  men,  he  imagined 
no  better  fate  than  that  they  would  be  left  to  their  swine- 
troughs.  As  for  an  ideal  common  to  all  men,  or  a 
power  competent  to  lift  them  toward  it,  there  is  no  trace 
in  his  writings  that  he  even  dreamed  of  the  possibility 
of  such  things.  In  his  view,  it  would  be  as  unreasonable 
to  hope  that  the  average  man  would  soar  to  his  bright 
heaven  of  contemplation,  as  to  expect  that  he  would  lay 
hold  on  the  stars  whose  light  fell  dimly  on  his  eyes. 

Aristotle  gave  a  higher  place  to  intellectual  excellence 
than  to  moral  virtue.  His  famous  doctrine  of  virtue 
was  that  of  a  mean  or  a  balance  between  extremes. 
Throughout  this  elaborate  theory,  there  is  no  provision 
for  creating  or  increasing  motive-power,  other  than  that 
which  each  soul  could  evolve  out  of  itself.  He  exhorts 
men  to  cultivate  a  habit  of  doing  right,  and  so  to  make 
it  easier  to  do  right ;  but  points  to  no  outward  help  or 
inspiration  which  will  supply  the  inward  strength  needed 
for  the  formation  of  such  a  habit.  There  is  no  cure  in 
his  system  for  man's  inherent  moral  weakness,  save  that 
to  be  drawn  from  the  teachings  of  himself  and  other 
moralists,  or  from  the  discipline  afforded  by  domestic 
and  political  institutions.  But  no  man  found  the  hurt 
of  his  soul  healed  by  any  remedy  from  these  sources. 

The  school  of  the  Stoics  —  as  represented  by  its  great 
masters,  Zeno,  Seneca,  Epictetus,  and  Marcus  Aurelius 
—  discovered  no  source  of  power  over  the  will,  outside 


The  Activity  of  the  Clerical  Mind  in  Ethics.       199 

of  itself.  They  delved  and  mined  and  explored  in  all 
directions,  they  cast  their  line  into  all  waters ;  but  all 
to  no  purpose.  In  their  weakness  and  despair,  while 
confronted  with  an  ideal  which  they  confessed  them- 
selves powerless  to  verify,  the  bitter  cry  again  and 
again  rose  from  their  lips,  in  substance  if  not  in  form, 
"  Wretched  man  that  I  am !  who  shall  deliver  me  from 
the  body  of  this  death  % "  ^ 

Coming  down  to  modern  systems,  and  referring  only 
to  the  noblest  and  best,  we  have  in  Bishop  Butler's  and 
Kant's  theories  the  highest  help  available  to  man  from 
natural  sources.  The  former  dilates  on  the  authority  of 
conscience ;  and  in  this,  and  in  the  alleged  coincidence 
of  duty  and  interest,  obligation  and  happiness,  for  the 
most  part  here,  and  perfectly  hereafter,  finds  the  only 
moral  dynamic  to  act  upon  the  will,  —  a  force  which  he 
sublimates  and  expands  in  his  sermons  into  the  love  of 
God ;  but  does  so  only  by  leaving  the  domain  of  ethical 
speculation,  and  crossing  over  into  that  of  Christian 
thought.  The  latter  starts  with  the  assertion  that  the 
only  real  and  absolute  good  in  the  whole  world  is  a 
good  will ;  and  a  good  will  he  defines  to  be  one  purely 
and  entirely  governed  by  the  moral  law.  This  law  is 
not  human  experience  generalized,  rests  not  on  sup- 
posed harmonies  of  interest  and  obligation:  but  tran- 
scends all  that  can  be  known  here  about  the  efi'ects  — 
happy  or  otherwise  —  of  moral  action ;  is  wide  as  the 
universe  ;  and  imposes  upon  all  beings  who  can  think  or 
conceive  it,  the  duty  to  obey  it.  Conscience  is  nothing 
but  the  translation  of  this  objective  law  into  the  lan- 

1  Rom.  vii.  24. 


200       The  Activity  of  the  Clerical  Mind  in  Ethics. 

guage  of  the  individual  consciousness.  Out  of  this  root- 
principle  are  developed  the  three  fundamental  moral 
ideas  which  are  the  pillars  of  all  moral  life,  —  freedom, 
immortality,  and  God.  Now,  in  this  scheme,  which  reso- 
lutely excludes  from  its  borders  all  the  emotions  of  love, 
pity,  reverence,  sympathy ;  all  mixtures  of  the  ideal 
and  actual ;  every  thing  but  the  pure  and  absolute  law, 
with  its  stern  imperative  demanding  the  obedience  of 
the  will,  —  what  practical,  available  motive-power  can  be 
found  %  There  are  but  two  factors :  the  law  on  the  one 
side,  strong  and  terrible ;  the  will  on  the  other,  smitten 
along  the  whole  circuit  of  its  action  with  a  hopeless 
sense  of  poverty  and  weakness.  Why,  it  is  as  though 
the  world  without,  standing  on  its  own  plane,  were  to 
enter  a  grave-yard,  and  call  upon  the  dead  to  come  forth 
by  the  exercise  of  an  energy  inherent  in  their  sleeping 
dust.  Kant's  theory  is  Stoicism  gone  mad.  When  he 
is  through  with  it,  he  admits  that  it  can  have  no  place 
or  function  in  actual  life  ;  but  leaves  it  to  float,  like 
a  thousand  other  waifs  spun  from  human  brains,  upon 
the  outer  sea  of  speculative  thought,  as  bright  and  as 
useless  as  an  ice-mountain  from  the  pole. 

The  various  schools  of  utilitarianism  remind  us,  as 
the  great  message  they  have  to  deliver,  that  pleasure 
and  pain  are  the  only  objects  of  choice,  the  only  motives 
which  can  determine  the  will.  Now,  as  has  been  weU 
remarked,  if  by  the  pleasure  or  pain  which  is  said  to 
be  the  end  of  action  is  meant  merely  the  happiness  or 
misery  of  one's  self,  the  dynamic  is  the  most  obvious 
and  the  most  surely  operating  that  can  be  imagined. 
But  then,  with  most  men,  exclusive  self-interest  is  not  a 


The  Activity  of  the  Clerical  Mind  in  Ethics.      201 

moral  motive  at  all,  but  rather  something  from  which 
they  look  to  morality  to  save  them. 

Without  pushing  further  this  review  of  natural  ethics 
in  regard  to  this  point,  we  have  abundant  warrant  for 
saying  that  in  what  have  been  called  the  intuitional 
theories,  the  motive  presented,  —  the  spiritual  dynamic, 
—  if  exalted,  is  too  remote  and  impalpable  to  be  brought 
home  to  the  hearts  of  ordinary  men;  while  in  the 
simpler  and  narrower  theories  built  up  on  the  concep- 
tion of  pleasure,  or  self-love,  as  the  supreme  dynamic 
of  the  will,  the  motive  is  clear  and  strong  enough,  but 
it  is  a  motive  which  most  men  of  any  moral  yearning 
reject  as  degrading  to  their  higher  manhood.  This 
motive,  to  be  sure,  is  made,  by  those  who  would  relieve 
it  of  its  grossness,  to  combine  with  benevolence,  and  to 
include  the  interests  of  the  human  race.  This  elevates 
the  motive,  but  robs  it  of  most  of  its  power.  Self-love 
is  strong  only  up  to  a  certain  limit :  when  carried 
beyond,  its  propelling  power  is  gone. 

Now,  two  things  are  plain.  Natural  ethics  in  every 
form  draws  all  help  from  within.  Men  are  in  search  of 
help  from  without.  Their  cry  is,  "  Lead  me  to  the  rock 
that  is  higher  than  I ; "  ^  "  Set  my  feet  upon  the  rock, 
and  order  my  goings  ;  "  ^  "  Lord,  be  Thou  my  helper."  ^ 
Crushed  on  the  one  hand  by  a  sense  of  the  infinity  of 
duty,  and  on  the  other  by  a  sense  of  their  spiritual 
poverty,  they  are  driven  out  of  themselves,  and  forced 
to  search  through  the  surrounding  gloom  for  an  arm  of 
strength  to  rescue  them  from  the  very  borders  of  despair. 
Philosophic  ideals,   with   all   their   elaborate    pictorial 

1  Ps.  Ixi.  2.  2  pg,  xi_  2.  8  pg.  XXX.  11. 


202       The  Activity  of  the  Clerical  Mind  in  Ethics. 

dreams  of  perfectibility,  are  to  them  only  as  pitiless 
ghosts  stealing  forth  from  the  outer  darkness  to  mock 
at  their  calamity,  and  jeer  at  the  rags  of  natural  virtue 
wherewith  they  would  fain  cover  their  nakedness.  The 
soul  well  knows  the  gap  between  its  own  condition  and 
the  "  thou  shalt "  of  the  commandment ;  and  its  supreme 
need  is  not  "dead  diagrams  of  virtue,"  but  living  powers 
of  righteousness.  What  it  craves  is  not  the  faculty  to 
know  the  right,  but  the  power  to  do  it.  The  moral 
reason  commands  what  the  will  cannot  do. 

Now,  what  neither  science,  nor  the  moral  law,  nor 
any  innate  faculty  can  do,  Christian  ethics  does.  It 
points  to  a  living,  personal.  Divine  Will,  which  reveals 
itself  as  the  needed  object  and  luminous  centre  of  the 
heart's  warmer  and  devouter  emotions,  —  a  Will  which, 
for  this  very  end,  has  clothed  itself  in  our  flesh,  and  is 
touched  with  a  feeling  of  our  infirmities ;  a  Will  which, 
in  human  guise,  salutes  us  in  accents  of  tenderest 
brotherhood,  saying,  "  Come  unto  Me,  and  I  will  give 
you  rest."^  "Seek,  and  ye  shall  find;"  "Ask,  and  it 
shall  be  given  unto  you."  ^  "  Whosoever  cometh  unto 
Me  I  will  in  no  wise  cast  out."  ^  "  God  is  love ;  and 
he  that  dwelleth  in  love  dwelleth  in  God,  and  God  in 
him."  ^  "  Every  one  that  loveth  is  born  of  God,  and 
knoweth  God."  ^  "  In  this  was  manifested  the  love  of 
God  toward  us,  because  that  God  sent  his  only  begot- 
ten Son  into  the  world,  that  we  might  live  through 
him."  ®  "  Whosoever  shall  confess  that  Jesus  is  the 
Son  of  God,  God  dwelleth  in  him  and  he  in  God."^ 

1  Matt  xi.  28.  ^  L^^e  xi.  9.  »  John  xvi.  24.  *  John  vi.  37. 

6  1  John  iv.  16.  «  1  John  iv.  9.  ''  1  John  iv.  15. 


The  Activity  of  the  Clerical  Mind  in  Ethics.      203 

"  Behold,  what  manner  of  love  the  Father  hath  bestowed 
upon  us,  that  we  should  be  called  the  sons  of  God."^ 
Such  is  the  seminal  truth  of  Christian  ethics.  Here  is 
the  arm  of  power  put  forth  from  the  darkness.  Here 
is  the  everlasting  rock  amid  the  unsteady  waters.  Here 
is  a  realm  of  feeling  and  truth  into  which  the  most 
favored  of  men,  apart  from  revelation,  have  never  been 
able  to  penetrate.  It  was  the  dream,  but  no  more,  of 
Plato  and  Marcus  Aurelius.  It  required  the  advent  of 
Christ,  in  whom  dwelt  the  fulness  of  the  Godhead  bodily, 
to  put  the  conception  of  all  this  as  a  vital  power  before 
men.  Himself —  even  the  Lord  Jesus  —  is  the  supreme 
and  original  dynamic  force  which  alone  can  take  the 
plague-spot  of  weakness  and  disease  from  the  human 
will.  His  method  is  not  that  of  the  philosophers.  They 
addressed  the  reason :  he  speaks  to  the  heart.  They 
fumbled  about  among  the  debris  of  a  ruined  nature,  and 
busied  themselves  in  constructing  out  of  them  a  fleshless 
skeleton  of  impossible  virtue.  He  pours  into  the  soul 
the  living  fire  of  Divine  love  fresh  from  heaven,  and 
provides  the  fuel  to  feed  it  until  it  returns  to  the  source 
whence  it  came.  They  sought  to  make  men  pure, 
generous,  humane,  righteous,  by  logical  influence.  He 
seeks  the  same  end,  but  by  bringing  them  into  contact 
with  his  own  Person,  with  the  scenes  of  Bethlehem  and 
the  mount  of  His  passion  and  the  grave  of  His  resurrec- 
tion, —  all  of  them  the  tokens  of  his  unutterable  love. 
And  then  Christian  ethics,  besides  showing  how  the 
motive  or  virtue-making  power  was  increased  by  Christ's 
character,  shows  also  how  this  same  power  is  augmented 

1  John  iii.  1. 


204       The  Activity  of  the  Clerical  Mind  in  Ethics. 

and  kept  alive  through  all  the  ages  by  the  transcendent 
doctrines  of  the  atonement,  the  resurrection,  and  the 
indwelHng  presence  of  the  Holy  Spirit. 

Herein,  then,  are  the  glory  and  triumph  of  Gospel 
ethics ;  and  herein,  too,  is  the  sui'e  testimony  which 
silences  the  gainsayers  of  its  perfection.  In  Emman- 
uel—  God  with  us  —  "  all  the  principles  of  man's  com- 
pound nature  find  their  ultimate  end :  the  natural  desii*e 
for  happiness,  the  craving  of  the  afi"ections  for  the  un- 
changeable and  the  perfect,  the  moral  needs  of  the  con- 
science, the  deep  and  passionate  yearnings  of  the  will 
conscious  at  once  of  its  liberty  and  its  frailty,"  —  all 
here  find  their  satisfaction ;  all  are  wrought,  as  separate 
strands  into  the  cable,  into  one  grand  composite  motive- 
power,  and  so  arranged  that  each  lower  and  more  selfish 
element  is  gradually  subordinated  and  absorbed  by  the 
higher  and  more  godlike. 

Such  in  our  day  have  been  the  attitude  and  work  of 
the  theological  or  clerical  mind  in  dealing  with  these 
themes  of  ever-engrossing  interest,  —  the  loftiest  that 
come  to  us  through  the  channel  of  revelation,  or  that 
can  claim  the  attention  of  the  human  mind.  Surely 
there  is  no  evidence,  in  all  this,  of  feebleness  or  decay. 
On  the  contrary,  may  we  not  see  in  it  another  proof,  in 
a  period  of  doubt  and  conflict,  of  God's  steadfast  purpose 
never  to  leave  His  Priesthood,  whatever  the  ebb  and  flow 
of  human  culture,  without  the  intellect  and  learning 
needful  for  the  defence  of  the  incomparable  treasure 
committed  to  their  keeping?  The  task  now  laid  upon 
the  Clergy  as  ethical  thinkers  and  teachers  is  the  direct 
product  of  the  dominant  philosophical  tendency  of  our 


The  Activity  of  the  Clerical  Mind  in  Ethics.      205 

time.  The -reigning  philosophy  of  the  day  is  the  parent 
of  the  ethical  systems  that  now  excite  most  attention. 
These  systems,  true  to  their  source,  account  it  their  chief 
merit,  that  they  have  been  built  up  in  absolute  inde- 
pendence of  the  religious,  supernatural,  divine  basis,  on 
which  it  has  been  held  and  believed  in  all  ages  that 
true  morality  rests.  It  is  only  natural  that  their  authors 
should  seek  to  discover  and  establish  morality  apart  from 
the  sanctions  of  a  Supreme  Being,  when  they  imagine 
that  themselves  or  others  have  accounted  for  the  crea- 
tion without  a  Creator.^  As  to  the  line  to  be  taken  in 
combating  these  latest  ventures  in  ethical  speculation, 
there  is  no  doubt.  Enough  has  been  done  to  make  this 
clear.  In  substance  it  is  as  old  as  Christian  morality 
itself;  and  the  duty  laid  upon  the  Clergy  is  simply  to 
re-state  and  expand  it  in  forms  of  thought  familiar  to  our 
time,  and  to  enforce  it  by  illustrations  drawn  from  the 
latest  knowledge  and  experience.  It  has  been  shown 
(and  the  argument  will  be  amplified  and  invigorated  as 
circumstances  may  require),  that  man's  duties  to  God 
comprise  his  duties  to  his  fellow-men  and  to  himself; 
that  our  moral  conceptions,  whatever  their  origin,  lose 
their  proper  sanction  and  cogency  unless  held  in  obedi- 
ence to  the  authority  of  a  Supreme  Being ;  that  an  Al- 
mighty and  All- Wise  external  Power  ordained  the  moral 
conditions  of  the  world,  as  evidently  as  he  ordained  the 

^  Of  the  recent  ethical  literature,  the  following  may  be  taken  as  apt 
specimens  of  this  drift  :  — 

1.  The  Data  of  Ethics,  by  Herbert  Spencer,  London,  3d  ed.,  1881. 

2.  The  Methods  of  Ethics,  by  Henry  Sidgwick,  London,  2d  ed.,  1877. 

3.  Lectures  and  Essays,  by  W.  K.  Clifford,  London,  1879. 

4.  The  Science  of  Ethics,  by  Leslie  Stephen,  London,  1882. 


206       The  Activity  of  the  Clerical  Mind  in  Ethics. 

physical  conditions  of  the  solar  system  and  of  the  globe ; 
that  the  universe  exists  for  a  moral  purpose,  and  that  a 
moral  purpose  can  be  accomplished  only  by  obedience 
to  moral  laws ;  that  the  moral  accountability  of  man  is 
a  part  of  this  purpose,  but  that  he  can  be  accountable 
only  to  a  moral  Being  superior  to  himself;  that  the 
sense  of  duty  springs  from  obedience  to  law,  and  not 
from  theories  of  the  schools  on  the  origin  of  conscience 
or  the  evolution  of  humanity ;  that,  in  discarding  the 
theistic  principle  as  the  foundation  of  morals,  no  writer, 
however  profound  and  ingenious,  has  shown  himself  able 
to  provide  a  tangible  substitute,  an  available  working 
basis,  grounded  upon  any  other  principle  ;  and,  finally, 
that  the  terms  of  recent  speculation  cannot  escape  the 
charge  of  vagueness  and  confusion,  as  well  as  of  utter 
impotence  to  control  and  regulate  the  conduct  and  the 
passions  of  men.  But  if  all  this  can  be  shown,  —  and 
in  good  part  it  has  already  been  shown, — then  it  follows 
that  this  latest  phase  of  natural  ethics  will  be  made  to 
appear  as  unsound  as  the  philosophy  on  which  it  rests. 


LECTURE  V. 

INTELLECTUAL  ACTIVITY  OF  THE  CLERGY  IN  APOLOGETICS 
AND  BIBLICAL  CRITICISM. 

I  SHALL  now  ask  attention  to  Apologetics  and  Biblical 
Criticism  as  affording  striking  examples  of  the  energy 
and  fruitfulness  of  the  theological  mind  in  the  closing 
decades  of  this  century.  By  the  labors  of  recent  Chi*is- 
tian  thought,  Apologetics  has  been  advanced  to  the 
dignity  of  a  science.  Judged  by  the  severest  tests,  it 
is  no  longer  to  be  regarded  as  an  inchoate,  unformed 
literature,  composed  of  isolated  monographs  and  frag- 
mentary contributions ;  but  as  a  compactly  built  body 
of  learning  and  logic.  Both  Apologetics  and  Biblical 
Criticism  have  grappled  boldly  and  successfully  with  the 
deepest  and  hardest  problems  falling  within  their  reach. 
In  whatever  quarters  Christian  students  and  thinkers  — 
their  adversaries  being  the  judges  —  may  have  shown 
timidity  or  vagueness  or  looseness  in  their  intellectual 
work,  they  have  not  shown  them  here. 

Religious  doubt  has  a  histoi*y  as  well  defined  as  that 
of  any  of  the  leading  manifestations  of  the  human  mind ; 
and  it  has  been  one  office  of  Apologetics,  considered 
as  a  science,  first  to  write  up  that  history,  and  then  to 
analyze  and  classify  its  facts.     Among^  other  results,  it 


208       Activity/  of  the  Clergy  in  Sacred  Studies. 

has  been  found  that  livmg  doubt  has  nothing  substan- 
tially new  to  offer.  However  divergent  its  lines  of 
attack,  it  has  been  shown  to  be  almost  identical  with 
that  of  the  second  and  third  centuries.  The  family 
likeness  is  marked  and  suggestive.  "  There  is  the  same 
spirit  of  naturalism ;  the  same  indisposition  to  rise  to 
the  belief  of  the  interference  of  Deity ;  the  same  feeling 
of  contempt  for  positive  religions ;  the  same  sensation 
of  heart-weariness,  —  the  utterance,  as  it  were,  of  the 
despairing  feeling,  '  Who  will  show  us  any  good  ? '  the 
same  lofty  theory  of  Stoic  morality,  and  disposition  to 
find  perfection  in  obeying  nature's  laws,  physical  and 
moral;  the  same  approximation  to  the  Christian  ideal 
of  perfection,  while  destroying  the  very  proof  of  the 
means  by  which  it  is  to  be  acquired."  Further,  it  has 
been  shown,  that,  as  the  difficulties  of  the  human  intel- 
lect in  both  periods  have  been  much  the  same,  so  the 
modes  of  meeting  these  difficulties  have  been  much  the 
same.  In  fact,  the  two  main  lines  of  apology  taken  at 
the  beginning  of  the  conflict  are  the  lines  taken  now, 
changed  only  in  being  widened  and  deepened  to  meet 
the  wider  and  deeper  thought  that  up  to  this  time 
completes  the  evolution  of  scepticism.  One  of  these 
lines  is  that  of  philosophy,  the  other  that  of  history : 
the  former  showing  the  capacities  and  wants  of  human 
nature,  and  how  perfectly  Christianity  meets  them ;  the 
latter  proving  that  the  events  by  which  Christianity  was 
introduced  and  established  are  as  much  a  part  of  au- 
thentic history  as  any  series  of  events  connected  with 
the  planting  and  development  of  any  of  the  leading 
kingdoms  of  the  world. 


Activity  of  the  Clergy  in  Sacred  Studies.       209 

Another  aim  of  Apologetic  Science  has  been  to  show 
how  these  Hnes  of  proof,  while  neither  has  at  any  time 
been  entirely  overlooked,  have  changed  places  at  the 
front  of  the  Christian  argument  according  to  the  fluc- 
tuations of  doubt. 

"  In  arguing  with  the  heathen  in  the  first  age,  the  philosophical 
method  was  adopted  ;  the  School  of  Alexandria  trying  to  lead  men 
to  Christianit}'  as  the  highest  wisdom.  In  the  Middle  Ages,  the 
same  method  was  adopted,  but  with  the  alteration  that  the  philos- 
ophy was  one  of  form,  not  of  matter.  In  the  later  Middle  Ages, 
the  appeal  was  to  the  Church.  In  the  early  contests  with  the 
English  deists,  the  appeal  was  to  the  authority  of  reason,  and  to 
the  Bible  reached  through  reason  ;  iu  the  later,  to  the  Bible  reached 
through  history  and  fact.  In  opposing  the  French  infidelit}',  the 
appeal  was  chiefly  to  authority-.  In  the  early  German,  the  appeal 
was  the  same  as  in  England ;  in  the  later  German,  it  has  been  a 
return  in  spirit  to  that  of  the  early  Fathers,  or  that  of  the  English 
apologists  of  the  eighteenth  century,  but  based  on  a  deeper  philos- 
ophy, which  appealed  to  feeling  or  intuition,  and  not  to  reflective 
reason,  and  through  these  ultimately  to  revelation."  ^ 

It  is  on  this  method  that  Apologetic  Science  mainly 
relies  to-day ;  with  this  difference,  that  the  area  of  the 
argument  has  been  so  far  expanded  as  to  include  some 
of  the  profoundest  questions  in  psychology  and  meta- 
physics.    The  chief  effort  now  is  to  prove :  — 

[a)  The  reality  of  knowledge,  as  against  the  theory 
of  phenomenalism  or  relativity ;  the  reality  of  knowledge, 
as  well  of  God,  the  Absolute  and  the  Infinite,  as  of  the 
world  and  of  human  consciousness. 

(h)  The  capacity  of  man  to  know  God,  as  against  all 
theories  of  agnosticism. 

^  Farrar's  Critical  History  of  Free  Thought,  note  49. 


210       Activity  of  the  Clergy  in  Sacred  Studies. 

(c)  What  and  how  much  man  can  know  of  God ;  in- 
volving at  once  the  extent  and  the  Hmitations  of  his 
knowledge,  and  in  such  way  as  to  establish  the  necessity 
—  and,  if  the  necessity,  the  probability,  or  even  the 
moral  certainty  —  of  a  revelation  to  remedy  the  defects 
of  such  knowledge. 

(d)  That  the  foundations  of  religion  are  laid,  in  the 
consciousness  of  man,  on  the  twin  pillars  of  a  meta- 
physical and  a  moral  sentiment :  the  former  binding  him 
to  the  eternal  and  unchangeable,  to  that  which  is  true 
in  itself,  the  essential  Being;  the  latter  leading  him 
forth  in  his  sin  and  suffering  (as  the  former  led  him 
forth  in  his  mental  weakness  and  imperfection),  in 
search  of  a  Father  who  loves  him,  and  who  will  there- 
fore be  his  saviour,  his  deliverer,  his  consoler. 

Emerging  from  the  domain  of  natural  religion  as 
proven  by  the  witness  of  man's  intellectual  and  moral 
consciousness.  Apologetic  Science,  true  to  the  present 
exigency,  and  moving  on  the  same  general  line,  passes 
up  into  the  domain  of  Christianity,  and,  appealing  again 
to  what  is  truest  and  best  in  man,  presents  to  him,  as 
the  sufficient  evidence  of  the  reasonableness  and  truth, 
as  well  as  of  the  Divine  origin,  of  Christianity,  the 
Christ,  its  author  and  finisher ;  exhibiting  Him,  in  His 
person,  work,  and  character,  as  the  supreme  moral 
miracle,  in  whom  all  other  credentials  centre,  and  from 
whom  they  derive  their  authority  and  explanation. 
And  then,  advancing  a  step  farther,  it  claims  to  prove, 
that,  as  the  character  of  the  Christ  could  not  have  been 
produced  by  any  or  by  all  moral  and  spiritual  forces 
working  in  or  upon  ordinary  humanity,  or  by  any  possi- 


Activity  of  the  Clergy  in  Sacred  Studies.       211 

ble  combination  of  types  of  human  nature,  as  Hebrew, 
Greek,  and  Roman,  it  must  be  supernatural,  divine ; 
and,  next,  that  the  Christ  was  a  real  person,  as  against 
the  two  theories,  the  mythical  and  the  legendary,  the 
only  ones  having  the  semblance  of  plausibility  yet  de- 
vised by  human  ingenuity  to  account  for  his  origin  and 
his  place  in  history ;  and,  finally,  that  the  Christ  of  the 
Church  and  of  the  Scriptures  is  also  the  historic  Christ, 
the  Christ  of  whom  the  best  thought  of  the  ages  and 
the  authentic  records  of  the  past  speak  in  this  wise.^ 

1  *'  We  talk,  indeed,  with  admiration  of  His  being  the  one  standard  to 
the  endlessly  differing  conditions  of  society,  —  to  rich  and  poor,  the  wise 
and  ignorant,  the  strong  and  weak,  the  few  and  the  many  ;  but  what  is 
this  to  the  wonder  of  his  having  been  the  constant  standard  to  distant 
and  different  ages?  In  the  same  Living  Person,  each  age  has  seen  its 
best  idea  embodied.  But  its  idea  was  not  adequate  to  the  truth  :  there 
was  something  still  beyond.  An  age  of  intellectual  confusion  saw  in  the 
portraiture  of  Him  in  the  Gospels  the  ideal  of  the  great  teacher  and 
prophet  of  human  kind,  the  healer  of  human  error,  in  whom  were  brought 
together  and  harmonized  the  fractured  and  divergent  truths  scattered 
throughout  all  times  and  among  all  races.  It  judged  rightly,  but  that 
was  only  part.  The  monastic  spirit  saw  in  it  the  warrant  and  sugges- 
tion of  a  life  of  self-devoted  poverty  as  the  condition  of  perfection.  Who 
can  doubt  that  there  was  much  to  justify  it?  Who  can  doubt  that  the 
reality  was  something  far  wider  than  the  purest  type  of  monastic  life? 
The  Reformation  saw  in  Him  the  great  improver,  the  breaker  of  the 
bonds  of  servitude  and  custom,  the  quickener  of  the  dead  letter,  the  stern 
rebuker  of  a  religion  which  had  forgotten  its  spirit ;  and  doubtless  He 
was  all  this,  only  He  was  infinitely  more.  And  now,  in  modern  times, 
there  is  the  disposition  to  dwell  on  Him  as  the  ideal  exemplar  of  perfect 
manhood,  great  in  truth,  great  in  the  power  of  goodness,  great  in  His 
justice  and  forbearance,  great  in  using  and  yet  in  being  above  the  world, 
great  in  infinite  love  ;  the  opener  of  men's  hearts  to  one  another,  the 
well-spring,  never  to  be  dry,  of  a  new  humanity.     He  is  all  this,  and  this 

infinitely  precious.  We  may  *  glorify  Him  for  it,  and  exalt  Him  as 
much  as  we  can;  but  even  yet  will  He  far  exceed'  (Eccl.  xliii.  30). 
That  one  and  the  same  form  has  borne  the  eager  scrutiny  of  each  anxious 


212       Activity  of  the  Clergy  in  Sacred  Studies. 

Much  as  has  been  made  of  the  method  restmg  upon 
philosophical  and  moral  evidence,  because  of  the  recent 
drift  of  sceptical  thought,  it  must  not  be  inferred,  as  is 
done  in  some  quarters,  that  what  are  known  as  the  ex- 
ternal evidences  have  been  disparaged  or  set  aside  by  our 
best  apologists.  The  tide  of  battle  has  sent  them  to  the 
rear  only  for  the  moment :  they  are  of  the  same  value 
as  they  have  always  been.  In  the  early  centuries,  mira- 
cles were  discussed  as  an  historical,  and  scarcely  at  all 
as  a  philosophical,  question.  In  our  day  this  has  been 
reversed.  The  question  now  is  not  so  much  what  his- 
tory may  say  of  them  as  events,  as  what  science  may  say 
of  them  as  possible  facts,  and  as  possessed  of  rational 
credibility.  So  far  has  this  been  pushed,  that  it  is 
now  commonly  said,  that,  so  far  from  miracles  proving 
Christianity,  it  is  part  of  the  extra  burden  put  upon 
Christianity  to  prove  the  miracles.  Of  late.  Apologetics 
has  encountered  a  difficulty  which,  like  so  many  others, 
reminds  us  of  its  experiences  in  the  early  centuries. 
The  agnostic  of  to-day  who  denies  the  validity  of  all 
knowledge  of  the  supernatural,  and  utterly  discredits 
reason  as  an  organ  of  absolute  truth  in  religion  or  in 

and  imperfect  age ;  and  each  age  has  recognized,  with  boundless  sympa- 
thy and  devotion,  what  it  missed  in  the  world,  and  has  found  in  Him 
what  is  wanted.  Each  age  has  caught  in  those  august  lineaments  what 
most  touched  and  swayed  its  heart.  And  as  generations  go  on,  and  un- 
fold themselves,  they  still  find  that  character  answering  to  their  best 
thoughts  and  hopes ;  they  still  find  in  it  what  their  predecessors  had  not 
seen  or  cared  for.  They  bow  down  to  it  as  their  inimitable  pattern,  and 
draw  comfort  from  a  model  who  was  plain  enough  and  universal  enough 
to  be  the  Master,  as  of  rich  and  poor,  so  of  the  first  century  and  the  last" 
—  Sermons  preached  before  the  University  of  Oxford  by  R.  W.  Church, 
Dean  of  St.  PauVs,  London. 


Activity  of  the  Clergy  in  Sacred  Studies,       213 

any  thing  else,  thus  foisting  upon  modem  thought  a 
new  phase  of  philosophical  scepticism,  corresponds  at 
bottom  with  the  Pyrrhonist  of  Pagan  thought.  Minu- 
tius  Felix,  one  of  the  early  Christian  apologists,  ran 
against  this  type  of  doubt,  and  dealt  with  it  as  we  must 
deal  with  it  to-day.  He  told  the  Pyrrhonist,  "  You  have 
dethroned  reason  as  the  faculty  of  truth,  and  therefore 
there  can  be  no  appeal  to  reason  in  behalf  of  the  rea- 
sonableness of  Christianity.  It  is  idle  to  debate  with 
you  about  the  functions  of  reason,  as  you  have  thrown 
the  validity  of  its  conclusions  out  of  count.  I  therefore 
affirm,  on  the  authority  of  a  Divine  Kevelation,  and  as 
a  dogma  which  you  will  reject  at  your  peril,  the  super- 
natural origin  and  claims  of  the  Christian  religion,  and 
defy  you  to  disprove  them.  I  cannot  prove  them  to 
you,  because  you  have  disbarred  the  only  authority  in 
you  to  which  an  appeal  can  be  made :  so  neither  for  the 
same  reason  can  you  deny  them."  This,  in  substance, 
must  be  our  line  with  the  agnostic  of  to-day.  To 
this  issue  he  must  be  held,  until  human  nature  itself 
drives  him  from  his  position,  and  forces  him  to  restore 
reason  to  its  rightful  throne.  Modern  apologetics  has 
accepted  reason  as  an  authority  in  the  great  debate, 
and  has  marshalled  before  it  the  Christian  evidences  for 
judgment.  And  so  the  acknowledged  aim  has  been 
to  show  the  reasonableness  of  Christianity.  So  far  has 
this  been  carried  by  some,  that  our  apologetics  has 
incurred  the  charge  of  rationahsm  by  undertaking  to 
do  its  work  apart  from  the  supernatural  elements  neces- 
sarily bound  up  with  it.  It  has  relied  too  much  upon 
reason   to   prove   what  transcends  reason ;    too    much 


214       Activity  of  the  Clergy  in  Sacred  Studies. 

upon  nature  to  prove  the  supernatural ;  and  not  enough 
upon  the  supernatural,  the  infinitely  greater  thing,  to 
vindicate  itself  as  entering  of  necessity  into  the  system 
of  nature.  It  has,  for  example,  puzzled  itself  to 
account  for  miracles  consistently  with  universal  laws, 
forgetting  that  both  miracle  and  law  are  but  different 
expressions  of  one  and  the  same  will-power;  miracle 
being  a  special  and  individual  expression  of  this  power, 
and  law  but  a  prolonged,  uniform  repetition  of  what,  in 
its  inception,  was  of  the  nature  of  a  miracle.  "  When 
science  explains  a  law,  theology  will  explain  miracles. 
The  mistake  has  been  in  putting  miracles  upon  proof, 
instead  of  putting  law  upon  explanation.  Law  and 
miracles  are  essentially  the  acts  of  one  and  the  same 
Absolute  Will.  The  will  of  God  has  general  manifesta- 
tions, called  laws ;  special  manifestations,  called  miracles. 
But  there  was  a  miracle  before  there  was  law,  just  as 
the  beginning  of  a  line  is  before  its  prolongation,  as  the 
special  goes  before  the  general,  and  the  general  is  only 
many  specials  in  succession.  When  law  is  accounted 
for  essentially,  then  miracles  are  accounted  for  ration- 
aUy." 

Again:  the  evidence  arising  from  the  fulfilment  of 
prophecy  was  often  successfully  appealed  to  by  the 
first  apologists.  This  evidence,  though  greatly  strength- 
ened by  the  lapse  of  centuries,  has  been  comparatively 
little  used  in  modern  discussion.  The  tide  of  conflict 
has  swept  by  it,  because  it  has  been  seldom  the  object 
of  attack.  It  has  shared,  moreover,  in  the  general  dis- 
credit which  modern  unbelief  has  endeavored  to  fasten 
upon  the  whole  family  of  external  evidences ;  a  discredit 


Activity  of  the  Clergy  in  Sacred  Studies.       215 

that  many  Christian  apologists  have  tacitly  assented  to, 
under  the  conviction  that  the  only  available  and  effec- 
tive proof  is  to  be  found  in  the  internal  relations  of 
Christianity  to  the  individual  soul.  Undoubtedly  such 
proof  suffices  in  all  cases  that  demand  its  application ; 
but  the  Christian  religion,  in  order  to  be  able  to  pre 
sent  itself  in  this  way  to  individual  inquirers  through 
the  successive  generations  of  mankind,  must,  before  all 
else,  maintain  its  title  and  place  as  an  historic  religion, 
supernaturally  introduced  into  the  historic  development 
of  the  race.  This  it  cannot  do  apart  from  the  external 
evidences  which  God  has  affixed  as  a  visible  seal  to  its 
Divine  origin  and  commission.  And  if  there  be  one 
lesson  that  recent  infidelity,  in  its  extravagant  idealism, 
has  impressed  upon  the  Christian  mind  more  deeply 
than  any  other,  it  is  the  value,  in  this  connection,  of 
the  external  evidences. 

But  a  wider,  and  in  some  respects  more  important 
field,  is  that  of  the  critical  study  of  the  Holy  Scriptures, 
in  which  we  find  perhaps  the  most  striking  and  abun- 
dant proofs  of  the  energy  and  learning  of  the  theological 
mind  of  this  age.  It  may  be  said  that  no  small  share  of 
the  best  work  done  in  this  field  has  been  done  outside 
theological  and  clerical  cii'cles.  Let  this  be  granted  to 
the  full  extent  of  the  facts ;  yet  such  is  the  vast  bulk 
of  the  scholarship  and  labor  expended  on  this  branch  of 
study,  that  the  most  liberal  allowance  for  outside  help 
does  not  sensibly  affect  it.  In  a  subsequent  lecture  I 
shall  have  occasion  to  allude  to  the  feeble  and  still 
declining  use  of  the  Scriptures  in  the  pulpit.  But  if 
the  preacher  has  fallen  off,  the  student  has  advanced. 


216       Activity  of  the  Clergy  in  Sacred  Studies. 

The  critical  may  not  be  as  important  as  the  didactic  or 
devotional  use  of  the  Word  of  God,  but  in  recent  times 
it  has  certainly  been  the  more  pressing  and  prominent. 
I  am  not  now  concerned  with  Biblical  study,  whether  as 
destructive  or  conservative,  as  rationalistic  or  mystical, 
or  otherwise :  I  have  to  do  with  it  only  as  it  discovers 
and  illustrates  the  range  and  quality  of  the  intellectual 
work  performed  in  the  last  and  in  the  present  generation 
by  ordained  men,  whether  pastors  or  teachers.  And  yet 
in  some  cases  the  results  of  this  work  may  not  be  over- 
looked, if  we  would  do  justice  not  only  to  the  intrinsic 
value  of  the  work,  but  as  well  to  the  depth  and  breadth 
of  the  mental  power  thrown  into  it. 

Biblical  study  as  pursued  of  late  has  proved  itself  to 
be,  more  than  ever  before,  the  most  comprehensive  of  aU 
intellectual  pursuits.  Not  only  in  theory,  but  in  practice, 
it  has  put  under  contribution,  and  treated  as  auxiliaries, 
all  sciences  and  literatures  and  histories.  In  extend- 
ing and  enriching  itself,  it  has  extended  and  enriched 
archaeology,  philology,  chronology,  geography,  general 
history;  while,  as  a  result  of  its  more  elaborate  and  sys- 
tematic examination  of  the  great  ethnic  religions,  it  has 
created  the  new  science  of  Comparative  Theology.  To 
theology  in  its  exegetical,  biblical,  historic,  and  dogmatic 
aspects,  it  has  given  a  new  impulse,  and  advanced  it  to 
higher  grades  of  attainment.  Among  its  other  achieve- 
ments, the  following  may  be  named  as  the  most  far- 
reaching  and  decisive.  It  does  not,  indeed,  claim  them 
as  original  with  itself,  but  points  to  them  as  topics  which 
it  has  thrown  into  bolder  and  stronger  lights,  as  against 
the  shadows  cast  upon  them  by  nineteenth-centuiy  .doubt. 


Activity  of  the  Clergy  in  Sacred  Studies.       217 

Thus  understood,  I  may  cite  the  following  as  giving  the 
most  emphatic  testimony  to  its  enlarged  spirit  and  mani- 
fold activity.  It  has  shown  more  clearly  than  ever  that 
the  Holy  Scriptures  contain  the  revelation  of  mysteries 
inseparable  from  the  relations  of  God  and  man,  for  which 
no  process  of  inductive  or  deductive  reason  could  furnish 
a  solution.  It  has  familiarized,  and  at  the  same  time 
exalted,  the  Bible  in  popular  estimation ;  destroying  what 
is  known  as  Bibliolatry,  while  making  it  more  the  book 
of  every-day  life, — the  people's  book.  It  has  treated  it 
as  a  literature  subject  to  the  accepted  rules  of  criticism 
and  exposition,  and  yet  has  carefully  discriminated  be- 
tween its  Divine  and  human  elements ;  insisting  with  an 
intensified  emphasis,  that,  however  interesting  it  may  be 
as  a  series  of  historical  documents,  affording  information 
nowhere  else  to  be  found,  it  stands  alone  and  unap- 
proached  as  the  rule  of  faith  and  life  for  mankind.  By 
a  double  process,  representative  of  two  opposing  schools, 
reaching  the  same  end,  each  by  its  own  method  of 
thought,  —  the  one  inductive  and  synthetic,  evolving 
unity  from  variety,  the  universal  from  the  particular; 
the  other  deductive  and  analytic,  evolving  variety  from 
unity,  the  particular  from  the  universal,  —  it  has  traced 
the  One  Infinite  and  Eternal  Mind  announcing  itself  on 
every  page  as  a  continuous  and  progressive  revelation  of 
perfect  love  and  justice.  Nor  has  it  failed  to  make  the 
most  of  the  obvious  and  pregnant  inference  from  the  suc- 
cess of  this  double  process,  viz.,  the  organic  character  of 
the  Scriptures,  binding  together  by  living  ligatures  every 
part  with  the  whole,  and  the  whole  with  every  part; 
and  this  in  spite  of  the  widest  diversity  of  envii-onments 


m^       Actimty  of  the  Clergy  in  Sacred  Studies. 

as  to  time  and  place,  as  to  social  and  political  modifica- 
tions, and  as  to  the  moral  and  intellectual  temperament 
of  the  sacred  writers.  As  against  all  theories  of  prog- 
ress, or  evolution,  or  education  of  mankind,  which  assume 
the  gradually  unfolding  human  consciousness  as  the  only 
and  sufficient  source  of  religion,  it  has  shown  that  the 
test  of  a  revelation  is  to  be  found,  not  in  its  beginning  or 
its  middle,  but  in  its  end;  not  in  "  the  ruling  ideas"  as 
they  are  imperfectly  developed  or  feebly  asserted  in  the 
early  ages  of  the  race,  but  in  "  the  ruling  ideas  "  as  they 
are  consummated  and  perfected  in  "  the  fulness  of  time." 
It  has  handled  consistently  and  exhaustively,  if  not  to  the 
satisfaction  of  all  minds,  that  most  difficult  of  questions : 
in  what  sense  are  the  Scriptures  the  inspired  record  of 
God's  communications  to  man  %  The  literature  that  has 
grown  up  around  this  question,  it  has  examined,  not  only 
with  profound  attention,  but  with  the  advantage  of  hav- 
ing in  plain  sight  the  dangerous  and  untenable  positions 
assumed  by  the  two  extreme  schools  that  have  discussed 
it  with  varying  fortunes  since  the  Keformation.  The 
mechanical  infallibility  which  Romanism  had  claimed  for 
the  Church,  and  which  was  one  of  the  causes  of  the 
Reform  movement,  was,  under  the  necessities  of  their 
position,  transferred  by  Calvin  and  his  followers  to  the 
Bible.  Losing  sight  of  the  true  office  of  the  Church  as 
the  pillar  and  ground  of  the  truth,  while  re-acting  from 
Romish  error  they  drifted  out  into  the  unchecked  individ- 
ualism of  private  judgment,  and  accepted  as  their  battle- 
cry,  "  The  Bible  alone  the  religion  of  Protestants ! "  One 
result  of  this  was  the  extreme  theory  of  mechanical  in- 
spiration, which  represents  the  inspiring  Spirit  as  work- 


Activity  of  the  Clergy  in  Sacred  Studies.       219 

ing  (W,  not  through^  man ;  using  him  as  a  pen,  not  as  a 
penman ;  dictating  not  only  the  thoughts  of  God,  but  the 
words  in  which  they  were  inscribed,  irrespective  of  the 
personal  characteristics  and  surroundings  of  the  several 
writers.  Thus  the  Scriptures  were  regarded  in  matter 
and  form  as  the  absolute  echo  of  the  Divine  voice ;  and 
the  mind  of  the  inspired  writer,  as  a  passive,  colorless, 
impersonal  medium, — a  soulless  machine,  mechanically 
responding  to  the  force  that  moves  it.  This  theory  ab- 
sorbed the  human  element  in  the  Divine,  and  made 
every  word  of  Scripture  equally  necessary  and  equally 
authoritative,  whether  relating  to  matters  belonging  to 
the  domain  of  physical  science,  or  to  those  within  the 
sphere  of  faith  and  morals.  Thus  the  life  and  its  dress, 
the  kernel  and  its  shell,  God's  voice  and  the  human  utter- 
ance of  it,  were  put  absolutely  on  the  same  plane.  There 
is  no  sanction  for  this  view  in  the  Scriptures  themselves 
or  in  historical  testimony.  It  was  not  long  before  it 
began  to  give  way  before  the  extravagances  of  fanaticism 
and  the  steady  advance  of  knowledge,  until  finally  its 
utter  demolition  was  completed  by  the  progress  of  mod- 
ern criticism  and  the  profounder  analysis  of  the  human 
mind.  Parallel  with  it  ran  the  opposite  extreme,  devel- 
oped by  the  subjective  tendencies  evoked  by  the  altered 
philosophy  of  the  times.  So  soon  as  it  became  the  in- 
tellectual habit  to  study  all  things  from  within  and  not 
from  without,  and  to  subordinate  the  organic  to  the  indi- 
vidual, external  authority  to  reason  or  intuition,  the  world 
was  absorbed  in  man,  and  revelation  itself  was  forced  to 
accept  his  judgment  as  its  ultimate  criterion.  As  part 
and  parcel  of  this  movement,  the  consensus  of  historic 


220       Activity  of  the  Clergy  in  Sacred  Studies. 

Christianity  —  the  testimony  of  the  Catholic  Church  — 
was  disparaged  more  and  more,  until,  with  the  whole 
fabric  of  external  evidence,  it  was  sent  to  the  rear  as 
powerless  and  useless,  if  not  irrelevant.  That  alone  was 
divine  which  every  man  in  his  own  way  could  feel  to  be 
so,  and  the  inner  consciousness  of  each  individual  read 
into  or  read  out  of  the  Scriptures  what  it  pleased. 
This  tendency  had  free  course,  until  the  conclusion  was 
reached,  that  the  Bible  was  merely  "the  book  of  Hebrew 
legends,  which  will  yield  to  the  skilful  inquirer  their 
residuum  of  truth,  like  those  of  the  Greeks  and  Romans 
and  other  ancient  peoples  ; "  and  that  inspiration  is  but 
another  name  for  "  that  poetic  faculty  which  embodies 
whatever  is  of  typical  or  permanent  import  in  things 
around,  and  invests  with  a  lasting  form  the  transitory 
growths  of  time." 

After  demonstrating  the  untenableness  of  both  these 
theories,  the  soundest  recent  thought  has  discouraged 
all  theorizing  on  the  subject,  and  fallen  back  upon  the 
view  always  held  by  the  Historic  Church,  treating  in- 
spiration as  a  fact  too  deeply  rooted  in  the  mystery  of 
God's  dealings  with  man  to  be  satisfactorily  accounted 
for  at  the  bar  of  human  reason.  And  yet  much  has 
been  done  to  simplify  the  subject,  and  thereby  to  lessen 
the  difficulties,  that  environed  it.  That  was  a  great 
step  taken  by  the  theological  mind  of  the  time,  when 
it  so  defined  inspiration  as  to  exclude  from  its  proper 
subject-matter  all  outside  the  moral  and  spiritual  world, 
the  world  of  belief  and  duty  ;  allowing  it,  indeed,  a  cer- 
tain hold  on  the  physical  order,  but  this  only  so  far  as 
might  be  necessary  to  supplement  the  teaching  of  natu- 


Activity  of  the  Clergy  in  Sacred  Studies.       221 

ral  theology  touching  its  creation  and  moral  govern- 
ment. It  was  another  great  step,  when  it  was  affirmed 
that  the  human  powers  of  the  sacred  writers  acted  ac- 
cording to  their  natural  laws,  even  when  most  under 
supernatural  direction ;  and  that,  for  Him  who  created 
these  powers,  it  was  quite  as  easy  to  quicken  them  into 
more  exalted  states  of  consciousness,  and  to  endue  them 
with  forces  not  inherently  theirs,  without  disturbing  the 
conditions  of  their  normal  action.  Thus  it  has  been 
shown  how  we  could  have  a  revelation  that  would  be 
authoritative  as  being  God's  voice,  and  intelligible  as 
being  in  the  thought  and  language  of  men ;  the  Divine 
agency  so  operating  as  neither  to  neutralize  the  nature 
of  the  human  medium,  nor  to  impair  the  absolute  truth- 
fulness of  the  message  from  God.  It  has  been  shown, 
too,  that,  while  unity  is  the  characteristic  of  God's 
teaching,  uniformity  is  not ;  thus  providing  for  the  im- 
mutability of  truth  amid  all  the  changes  incident  to  the 
progress  of  humanity,  and  so  leaving  to  truth  such 
ample  play  as  would  enable  it  to  assume  spontaneously 
such  forms  as  would  best  adapt  it  to  the  age  in  which 
it  was  revealed,  whether  it  be  the  age  of  patriarchal 
simplicity,  or  the  age  of  national  vigor  and  maturity,  or 
the  age  glorified  by  the  ministry  of  the  Christ,  or  the 
age  in  which  the  infant  Church  struggled  into  historic 
form.  Thus,  too,  it  has  been  explained  how  the  Bible 
proves  its  inspiration  as  a  whole,  not  by  the  contents  of 
particular  books,  but  by  the  final  result  which  deter- 
mines the  quality  and  value  of  every  stage  in  the  series 
leading  up  to  it. 

But  finally,  to  use  the  weighty  language  of  one  of 
the  ablest  of  living  Bible-students  :  — 


222       Activity  of  the  Clergy  in  Sacred  Studies. 

^^  To  speak  of  the  proof  of  the  inspiration  of  the  Scriptures, 
involves  an  unworthy  limitation  of  the  idea  itself.  In  the  fullest 
sense  of  the  word,  we  cannot  prove  the  presence  of  life,  but  are 
simply  conscious  of  it ;  and  inspiration  is  the  manifestation  of  a 
higher  life.  The  words  of  Scripture  are  spiritual  words,  and  as 
such  are  '  spiritually  discerned.*  The  ultimate  test  of  the  reality 
of  inspiration  lies  in  the  intuition  of  that  personal  faculty  (irvcv/ia) 
by  which  inspired  men  once  recorded  the  words  of  God,  and  are 
still  able  to  hold  communion  with  Him.  Ever}'-  thing  short  of  this 
leaves  the  great  truth  still  without  us,  and  that  which  should  be  a 
source  of  life  is  in  danger  of  becoming  a  mere  dogma. 

"At  the  same  time,  it  is  as  unfair  and  dangerous  to  reject  the 
teaching  of  a  formal  proof  of  inspiration,  as  it  is  to  rely  upon  it 
exclusively.  It  cannot  be  an  indifferent  matter  to  us,  to  bring  into 
harmonious  combination  the  work  and  the  writings  of  the  Apostles  ; 
to  follow  and  faithfully  continue  the  clear  outlines  of  scriptural 
criticism  as  traced  in  the  writings  of  the  New  Testament ;  to  rec- 
ognize the  power  which  the  Bible  has  hitherto  exercised  upon  the 
heart  of  the  Church,  and  the  depths  which  others  have  found  in  it." 

It  may  be  regarded  as  now  definitely  settled  by  the 
sounder  tendencies  of  Christian  thought,  that  no  sepa- 
ration of  outward  from  inward,  of  logical  from  moral 
proof  will  be  tolerated.  Though  the  former  may,  with 
the  progress  of  time,  acquke  no  fresh  force  or  wider 
application,  it  is  yet  of  great  value,  because  it  can  be 
transmitted,  in  all  its  formal  completeness,  from  one 
generation  to  another,  and  without  appreciable  fluctua- 
tion in  the  testimony  it  offers  ;  while  the  latter,  though 
it  may  change  with  changing  modes  of  thought,  must 
always  have  the  utmost  value,  because  its  vitality  and 
strength  will  increase  with  the  growing  fulness  and 
power  of  ever-accumulating  individual  experiences  of 
the  internal  meaning  of  God's  revealed  Word.     That 


Activity  of  the  Clergy  in  Sacred  Studies.       223 

this  conclusion  has  been  reached  after  three  centuries 
of  discussion,  and  that  it  is  not  likely  to  be  disturbed  by 
any  new  turn  of  thought  on  the  subject  of  inspiration, 
afford  a  happy  omen  of  the  character  of  all  future 
dealings  with  this  aspect  of  the  Holy  Scriptures. 

But,  as  before  remarked,  the  scientific  study  of  the 
Scriptures  has  in  our  day,  and  in  response  to  the  spirit 
of  the  age,  taken  mainly  the  form  of  criticism ;  and 
in  this  form,  therefore,  demands  our  chief  attention. 
Criticism  in  general  has  been  defined  to  be  a  method 
of  knowledge,  or  a  method  of  testing  the  certainty  of 
knowledge  by  discriminating  between  the  true  and  the 
false,  the  proven  and  the  hypothetical.  Biblical  criti- 
cism in  the  modern  sense  began  with  the  general 
awakening  of  the  human  mind  which  accompanied  and 
followed  the  Reformation.  It  started  as  one  phase  of 
the  spirit  of  inquiry,  which  permeated  all  branches  of 
thought;  it  has  grown  and  spread  with  the  progress 
of  knowledge.  In  our  day  it  may  be  said  to  have 
reached  the  climax  of  boldness  and  versatility.  By  way 
of  consolation  to  those  who  look  timidly  and  regretfully 
on  the  fruits  of  its  destructive  zeal,  it  is  often  said,  as 
the  sufiicient  answer  to  all  fears,  that  its  growth  falls 
within  the  Umits  of  the  centuries  most  remarkable  for 
intellectual  progress,  and  that  the  day  is  only  beginning 
to  dawn  when  its  constructive  work  will  supplant  the 
ruin  it  has  wrought  among  the  cherished  traditions  of 
the  past.  However  this  may  be,  my  purpose  wiU  be 
met  by  noting  its  present  characteristics  so  far  as  they 
affect  my  theme. 

And,  first,  I  note  the  increased  attention  given  to  Ian- 


224       Activity  of  the  Clergy  in  Sacred  Studies. 

guages  of  the  Bible.  This  is  due  in  part  to  the  recent 
advance  in  all  branches  of  philological  study,  but  still 
more  to  the  newly  awakened  interest  in  the  Scriptures 
as  the  earliest  and  most  important  of  historical  docu- 
ments. Whatever  the  cause,  it  is  certain  that  the  study 
of  the  Bible  tongues  is  now  being  pushed  as  it  never  has 
been.  The  more  we  know  of  their  history  and  struc- 
ture, as  well  as  of  their  relations  to  other  families  of 
speech,  the  more  we  desire  to  know  of  them.  The  in- 
terest deepens  on  all  sides,  with  the  progress  of  investi- 
gation. It  is  no  longer  merely  the  belief  that  these 
languages  embody  the  loftiest  and  purest  religious  and 
ethical  thought,  that  attracts  the  learned ;  but  as  well 
the  energy,  vividness,  and  majesty  of  the  embodiment 
itself.  It  has  now  become  evident  to  all  minds  willing 
to  see  God  in  the  processes  of  nature  and  history,  that, 
as  it  was  His  purpose  to  reveal  Himself  to  man,  so  it  was 
equally  His  purpose  to  prepare  the  vehicle  by  which  the 
revelation  should  be  conveyed.  The  deeper  we  go  into 
the  history,  the  more  carefully  we  examine  the  peculiar 
characteristics  of  the  Hebrew,  Aramaic,  and  Greek  lan- 
guages, the  more  striking  are  the  traces  of  this  Provi- 
dential preparation ;  and  the  more  plainly,  moreover,  do 
we  see  that  it  was  the  Divine  intent,  that,  having  "  run 
their  career  as  living  tongues,  they  should  lapse  into 
the  unalterable  form  of  dead  ones ;  so  holding  mean- 
while, and  for  all  coming  time,  in  their  fixed  embrace, 
the  message  of  eternal  redemption,"  as  to  lift  it  on  its 
human  side  above  the  possibility  of  material  change, 
amid  all  the  inevitable  changes  of  the  world's  life  and 
the  world's  speech.     The  more,  too,  our  best  students 


Activity  of  the  Clergy  in  Sacred  Studies.       225 

have  observed  the  subtle  and  essential  connection  be- 
tween language  and  thought,  —  a  connection  as  of  body 
and  soul,  —  the  stronger  is  their  conviction,  that,  of  all 
tongues  ever  spoken  or  written  by  the  human  race,  the 
best  were  chosen  for  the  sacred  uses  of  revelation; 
whether  regard  be  had  to  the  simplicity  and  grandeur, 
or  to  the  fulness  and  variety,  of  its  contents.  There  has 
never  been  a  time  when  scholars  have  not  felt  that  no 
translation  could  take  the  place  of  the  original  Scrip- 
tures ;  but  now  this  feeling  is  so  positive,  so  earnest, 
that  all  second-hand  versions  are  reckoned  as  second- 
hand appliances  of  study,  and  none  are  counted  even 
in  the  inferior  rank  of  Biblical  students  that  have  not 
handled  with  a  living  interest  the  languages  in  which 
the  life  and  spirit  of  God  originally  took  shape.  Nor 
is  this  the  highest  point  reached  by  the  sacred  studies 
of  the  day:  for  not  only  has  it  been  shown  that  the 
Hebrew  in  the  earliest  forms  known  to  us  was  the 
fruit  of  a  still  earlier  literary  development,  and  that 
the  whole  family  of  Shemitic  languages,  eleven  in  num- 
ber, were  derived  from  an  original  mother-tongue,  of 
which  all  traces  are  gone ;  but,  what  is  vastly  more 
important,  that  the  Shemitic  group,  however  great  the 
contrast  in  their  respective  features,  crystalHzed  into  a 
higher  unity,  in  order  to  perform  more  perfectly  the 
task  of  conveying  to  all  ages  the  Divine  Revelation.  To 
work  back  to  this  higher  unity,  has  become  one  of  the 
higher  aims  of  our  best  Oriental  scholarship.  But  this 
is  impossible  without  an  acquaintance  with  the  lan- 
guages cognate  to  the  Hebrew.  This  accounts  for  the 
extraordinary  interest  (attributed  by  some  to  mere  curi- 


226       Activity  of  the  Clergy  in  Sacred  Studies. 

osity,  or  to  the  desire  to  escape  intellectual  ennui  by 
going  in  search  of  yet  unconquered  difficulties)  taken 
more  and  more  in  the  study  of  the  Arabic,  Ethiopic, 
Syriac,  Chaldee,  Phoenician,  Assyrian,  and  Babylonian. 
It  is  a  noteworthy  fact,  that  the  most  advanced  philol- 
ogy of  the  day,  without  by  any  means  abandoning  the 
Indo-Germanic  group,  is  throwing  its  chief  efforts  in 
this  direction;  and  it  is  equally  noteworthy,  that  the 
leading  centres  of  learning  in  England  and  America  (as 
those  in  Germany  and  France  did  long  ago)  are  making 
provision  for  this  rising  taste,  —  a  taste,  be  it  observed, 
originally  excited  by  Scripture  studies,  and  now  chiefly 
cultivated  by  the  votaries  of  these  studies. 

However  interesting,  it  does  not  fall  within  my  limits 
to  point  out  in  detail  what  the  enlarged  criticism  of  the 
Bible  has  done  in  late  years  to  bring  within  the  reach 
of  those  who  have  no  time  to  be  scholars,  not  only  the 
Hebrew's  marvellous  power  of  expression,  and  intense 
realism  in  grasping  the  concrete,  phenomenal  side  of 
nature  and  human  life,  but  how  it  influenced,  while  it 
yielded  to,  the  Aramaic,  the  vernacular  of  our  Lord,  and 
through  the  Aramaic  the  Greek,  which  enshrined  the 
teachings  of  the  God-man  in  forms  so  perfect  that  no 
possible  culture  of  the  race  can  outgrow  them. 

The  next  thing  to  be  noted  in  the  Biblical  criticism 
of  our  time  is  its  researches  and  conclusions  touching 
the  Canon  of  Holy  Scripture.  There  is  nothing  original 
or  specially  characteristic  in  the  thought  and  learning  of 
the  day  on  this  subject.  Criticism  here  has  taken  sub- 
stantially the  old  hues,  only  working  them  out  with  more 
fulness  as  the  matters  in  debate  have  been  successively 


Activity/  of  the  Clergy  in  Sacred  Studies.       227 

pushed  into  prominence.  Avowedly  rationalistic  criti- 
cism has  regarded  the  Canon  as  a  purely  historic  and 
literary  question.  Considering  inspiration  as  simply  an 
exalted  form  of  ordinary  consciousness,  with  no  super- 
added gifts  of  spiritual  insight,  and  with  no  truth  from  a 
source  higher  than  itself  to  convey,  it  has  attached  no 
other  moral  authority  to  any  of  the  Sacred  Writings  than 
can  be  found  in  any  of  the  nobler  efforts  of  the  human 
mind.  As  for  the  traditional  consensus  of  the  Chiu'ch,  it 
has  reduced  that  to  the  least  possible  value ;  resolving 
every  issue,  as  it  has  arisen,  into  one  of  dates,  author- 
ship, style,  and  relations  to  similar  documents.  It  has 
torn  the  Old  Testament  into  shreds,  rejecting  as  spurious 
or  unauthenticated  at  least  one-third  of  its  contents  ; 
while  scarcely  a  book  of  the  New  Testament  has  escaped 
its  disparaging  doubts.  And  yet  few  of  its  verdicts  have 
been  accepted  by  the  general  scholarship  of  the  time  as 
more  than  plausible,  while  the  most  of  them  have  been 
set  aside  as  unsupported  by  competent  evidence. 

Next  comes  the  half-mystic  and  half-rationalistic  line 
taken  by  critics  and  theologians  boasting  their  loyalty 
to  the  Puritan  rule  of  judgment  announced  by  the 
ultra-Reformation  thought  of  the  sixteenth  century. 
This  determines  the  canonicity  of  the  received  books 
by  the  inward  light  imparted  to  the  individual  mind  by 
the  Holy  Spirit,  speaking  thi'ough  the  books  themselves. 
Thus  every  part  of  Scripture  proves  its  right  to  be 
where  it  is,  by  the  impression  it  makes  on  the  judg- 
ment of  the  individual  believer.  But,  as  matter  of  fact, 
this  impression  has  proved  to  be  variable  and  contradic- 
tory.    The  Song  of  Songs,  for  example,  has  often  been 


228       Activity  of  the  Clergy  in  Sacred  Studies. 

declared  by  the  isolated  individual  Christian  judgment 
to  be  disgusting  when  interpreted  literally,  and  blasphe- 
mous when  treated  as  an  allegory.  The  Epistle  of  St. 
James  crossed  Luther's  track ;  and  he  did  not  hesitate 
to  pronounce  it  a  thing  of  straw,  and  unworthy  of  its 
place  in  the  Sacred  Canon.  And  so,  too,  the  individual 
Christian  judgment,  even  when  guided  by  historical 
testimony  rather  than  by  the  inward  light,  has  fre- 
quently challenged  the  canonical  authority  of  St.  Jude, 
of  Second  St.  Peter,  and  of  Second  and  Thu'd  St.  John, 
and  even  the  Revelation  of  St.  John  the  Divine ;  and 
this  simply  on  the  external  ground  of  the  omission  of 
these  books  in  the  New  Testament  of  the  Syriac  Church, 
the  earliest  collection  of  Christian  Scriptures  for  the 
East.  The  Puritan  rule  magnifies  inspiration  to  the 
utmost,  but  confers  upon  the  individual  believer  the  sole 
and  supreme  right  to  pass  upon  the  signs  and  proofs  of 
its  presence ;  setting  aside  as  of  inferior  moment  the 
uniform  consent  of  Catholic  Christendom,  this  being  es- 
teemed as  little  more  than  a  loose  aggregate  of  opinions 
vitiated  more  or  less  by  ignorance  and  prejudice,  or  by 
the  bondage  of  tradition. 

Next,  there  is  the  Roman-Catholic  view  of  the  Canon, 
which  treats  the  dicta  of  private  judgment  as  an  im- 
pertinence, and  leaves  the  whole  matter  to  the  infallible 
Church,  — or  rather,  since  the  Vatican  decrees  of  1870, 
to  the  infallible  Pope. 

Finally,  there  is  the  Anglo-Catholic  teaching.  This 
rests  the  Canon,  to  begin  with,  on  the  witness  of  the 
undivided  Catholic  Church  of  the  first  five  centuries, 
during  which  it  was  framed  and  established  as  we  now 


Activity  of  the  Clergy  in  Sacred  Studies.       229 

have  it  and  as  it  has  been  ever  since.  With  the  Canon 
thus  grounded  upon  external  testimony  which,  by  virtue 
of  its  authorship  and  the  mode  of  its  dehverance,  is  only 
the  voice  of  the  Holy  Ghost  speaking  through  the  whole 
organic  Body  of  Christ,  this  view  encourages  and  author- 
izes the  individual  believer  to  examine  the  several  books 
for  himself,  guided  by  "  the  inward  light"  given  by  the 
same  Holy  Ghost,  according  to  the  measure  of  his  fac- 
ulties. Where  he  can  attain  to  certainty,  it  bids  him 
rejoice  and  be  strengthened :  where  he  cannot,  it  bids 
him  leave  the  doubt  to  the  consentient  judgment  of  the 
Divine  Body  of  which  he  is  a  member.  As  matter  of 
fact,  no  book  of  Scripture  was  admitted  into  the  Canon 
until  tested  by  use,  and  formally  approved  by  the  whole 
Church.  The  Church,  acting  in  council,  simply  bore 
witness  to  such  use  and  approval,  and  gave  to  the  books 
so  tested  the  seal  of  its  authority.  The  only  question  is 
as  to  the  nature  of  this  authority,  and  the  extent  of  our 
obligation  to  accept  it.  But  this  is  only  another  form  of 
the  question  as  to  the  reality  of  the  promise  made  to  her 
by  the  Church's  Divine  Head,  that  the  Holy  Ghost,  given 
on  the  Day  of  Pentecost,  shall  guide  her  into  all  truth. 
Consider  it  as  we  may,  to  doubt  the  bestowment  of  this 
gift,  or  the  power  and  authority  that  went  with  it,  is  to 
doubt  the  Incarnation  itself.  As  to  their  place  in  the 
scheme  of  Christianity,  they  are  on  the  same  super- 
natural plane,  and  have  an  identical  historic  credibility. 
As  these  several  views  of  the  Canon,  or  rather  of  its 
authority,  are  the  products  of  wide  moral  and  intellectual 
differences  among  men,  so  it  is  scarcely  to  be  expected 
that  any  one  of  them  will  ever  command  general,  far 


230       Activity  of  the  Clergy  in  Sacred  Studies. 

less  universal  consent.  But  even  though  this  be  true, 
it  is  of  interest  to  inquire  which  of  them  is  likely  to  do 
the  better  service  to  Christianity  amid  the  religious  up- 
heaval and  anarchy  of  these  times.  I  leave  the  inquky 
with  the  single  remark,  that  as  the  soul  of  man  and  the 
world  without,  the  faith  once  delivered  and  the  sum  of 
human  knowledge,  will  never  be  at  unity  until,  both  in 
religion  and  philosophy,  the  objective  and  the  subjective, 
being  and  thought,  the  real  and  the  ideal,  shall  be  recon- 
ciled by  seeing,  the  one  in  the  other,  only  opposite  sides 
of  the  same  organic  whole ;  so  these  conflicts  of  opinion 
relating  to  the  authority  of  the  Body  of  Christ  and  the 
authority  of  the  individual  reason  will  not  be  even  in 
the  way  of  ultimate  settlement  until  our  nineteenth-cen- 
tury thought,  ceasing  to  put  its  weakest  emphasis  on  the 
former  and  its  strongest  on  the  latter,  shall  grasp  more 
reverently  and  practically,  not  merely  the  natural  soli- 
darity of  the  race  considered  as  of  one  blood,  but  the 
supernatural  unity  of  all  men  in  Christ,  and  therefore  of 
all  men  as  members  of  the  Church  of  the  living  God. 

Returning  for  a  moment  to  gather  up  the  result  of 
recent  criticism  on  the  Canon  of  Holy  Scriptures  as 
wrought  out  in  the  main  by  ordained  representatives  of 
the  Church,  it  can  be  claimed,  without  fear  of  contradic- 
tion by  the  best  scholarship  of  our  day,  wherever  found, 
that  there  is  a  general  consent  as  to  the  books  commonly 
received  as  canonical,  and  that  there  is  a  decided  pre- 
ponderance of  testimony  in  favor  of  those  concerning 
which  there  has  been  any  question. 

I  come  now  to  the  work  of  criticism  on  the  text  of  the 
Sacred  Writings.     How  wide  and  difficult  a  field  of  in- 


Activity  of  the  Clergy  in  Sacred  Studies.       231 

vestigation  this  opens,  they  only  know  who  have  given 
to  it  the  labors  of  a  lifetime.  Within  this  field  has  been 
piled  up  a  mass  of  minute  technical  learning,  which  it 
would  be  idle  to  speak  of  save  in  bulk  and  in  some  of  its 
leading  results.  All  things  considered,  the  preservation 
of  the  Scriptures,  as  we  have  them,  attests  the  wonder- 
ful care  of  Divine  Providence,  and  a  singular  devotion 
and  fidelity  on  the  part  of  their  custodians  through  all 
the  ages  of  the  two  dispensations.  And  yet  mistakes 
and  corruptions  have  crept  in  through  copyists  and 
heretics  and  over-anxious  believers;  these  have  multi- 
plied with  the  lapse  of  time,  and  have  been  concealed 
or  exaggerated  according  to  the  interests  of  conflicting 
schools  of  scholarship  and  theology. 

The  importance  of  a  genuine,  original,  uncorruptecj 
text  has  always  been  felt ;  but  it  has  been  only  in  mod- 
ern times,  and  chiefly  in  the  past  and  present  generation, 
that  Christian  scholars,  in  Orders  and  out  of  Orders, 
have  addressed  themselves  to  the  task  of  securing  it  in  a 
resolute,  continuous,  and  systematic  manner.  In  spite, 
however,  of  the  vast  amount  of  labor  given  to  this  task, 
we  have  not  yet  the  ideal  text.  In  fact,  none  has  been 
produced,  up  to  this  time,  which  satisfies  the  critics  them- 
■  selves.  So  true  is  this,  that  the  chief  fault  found  with 
the  recent  Revised  Version  of  the  New  Testament  is 
grounded  upon  the  imperfection  of  the  standard  text 
from  which  its  translation  was  made.^     In  the  sixteenth 

1  Whatever  may  be  thought  of  the  probability  or  desirableness  of  the 
general  adoption  of  the  Revised  Version  for  practical  use,  it  must  be 
regarded  on  all  hands  as  a  remarkable  exhibition  of  critical  erudition 
and  ability.  It  may  be  doubted  whether  any  thing  surpassing  it  in 
minute,  patient,  and  varied  learning,  has  appeared  in  any  department  of 
study  in  this  generation. 


232       Activity/  of  the  Clergy  in  Sacred  Studies. 

century,  Luther,  Zwingli,  and  Calvin  undertook  work 
which  compelled  them  to  be  translators  and  critics. 
They  dealt  some  rough  blows  to  the  texts  and  versions 
that  fell  into  their  hands.  They  were  by  no  means 
backward  in  taking  liberties  with  the  grammar  and  logic 
of  the  sacred  authors,  often  raising  the  question  as  to 
how  far  they  went  in  their  belief  in  verbal  inspiration. 
They  certainly  rejected  the  Massoretic  traditional  point- 
ing, and  accepted  as  inspired  only  the  unpointed  Hebrew 
text.  The  first  decided  impulse  to  profounder  and  closer 
textual  study  was  given  by  Maronite  scholars  in  the 
seventeenth  century,  who  threw  down  a  wealth  of  Ori- 
ental learning  at  the  feet  of  Christian  scholars.  This 
impulse  was  quickened  by  Pocock's  journey  to  the  East, 
crowned  as  it  was  with  priceless  treasures  of  Arabic 
literature ;  the  first  practical  use  of  which.  In  France, 
Holland,  and  England,  was  the  renewed  study  of  the 
Hebrew  Scriptures,  and  the  memorable  conflict  with  rab- 
binical tradition,  ending  in  the  denial  of  the  inspiration 
of  the  Hebrew  vowel-points  and  accents,  and  the  com- 
mon Massoretic  text.  Coincident  with  this  was  the 
appearance  of  those  monuments  of  textual  learning,  the 
great  Polyglots  of  Antwerp,  Paris,  and  London ;  the  last 
having  been  regarded  ever  since  as  the  foremost  critical 
work  of  the  seventeenth  century,  and,  as  every  scholar 
knows,  continuing  until  the  present  day  as  the  acknowl- 
edged basis  for  the  comparative  study  of  versions.  In 
the  eighteenth  century  we  have  the  noteworthy  labors,  in 
the  same  field,  of  Mill,  Richard  Bentley,  Bishop  Lowth, 
and  Kennicott,  with  whose  passing  away  this  branch  of 
learning  migrated  to  the  Continent,  there  to  stay  until 


Activity/  of  the  Clergy  in  Sacred  Studies.       233 

our  own  time.  The  great  textual  critics  of  Germany 
and  Holland  from  1734  to  1870,  ending  with  Tischen- 
dorf  the  greatest  of  them  all,  are  as  household  words 
to  all  who  have  any  interest  in  this  line  of  study.  This 
brief  review  will  prepare  us  to  appreciate  the  advance 
in  textual  criticism,  both  of  the  Old  and  the  New  Testa- 
ment, accomplished  in  our  day  by  divines  and  Christian 
scholars,  especially  by  those  in  England.  From  England 
alone,  in  the  last  thirty  years,  we  have  had  at  least  five 
works  in  this  department,  of  the  first  rank ;  and  to 
Drs.  Westcott  and  Hort,  honored  names  of  Cambridge 
University,  the  distinction  is  universally  conceded,  of 
"  having  advanced  the  textual  criticism  of  the  New 
Testament  beyond  the  mark  reached  by  the  best  Conti- 
nental scholars."  And  yet  it  remains  to  be  said,  as 
showing  how  much  is  still  to  be  done,  that,  in  the 
remarkable  work  of  Ginsberg  on  the  Massora  (London, 
1880),  we  have  only  a  good  start  toward  a  correct  text 
of  the  Old  Testament. 

Finally  we  come  to  the  most  prominent  aspect  of  Bib- 
lical criticism,  —  that  known  to  us  under  the  name  of 
"  the  Higher  Criticism,"  whose  chief  aim  is  to  study  the 
Scriptures  simply  as  literature,  to  inquu'e  into  the  origin 
and  development  of  the  material  contained  in  the  Bible, 
into  questions  of  authorship  and  of  environments,  and 
into  the  interior  structure  and  relations  of  the  several 
books.  The  subject  is  too  large  and  intricate  for  details, 
and  yet  without  a  brief  review  of  its  history  we  cannot 
properly  understand  the  phase  which  it  presents  to-day. 
This  review  will  lead  us  up  to  facts  of  great  interest  and 
importance  in  the  present  outlook  of  sacred  literature. 


234:       Activity  of  the  Clergy  in  Sacred  Studies. 

It  will  show  us  that  many  of  the  agitating  questions  now 
pressing  upon  us,  so  far  from  being  new  questions,  have 
occupied  the  attention  of  Biblical  scholars  in  one  way  or 
another  for  at  least  three  hundred  years,  though  thrown 
into  greater  prominence  by  the  critical  work  of  the  last 
hundred  years.  It  will  show  us,  that,  as  in  the  past,  so 
to-day,  the  studies  of  the  Clergy  must  be  so  conducted 
as,  while  making  room  for  all  ascertained  truth,  to  defend 
the  Divine  authority  of  the  Scriptures  against  both  a 
diluted  and  a  consolidated  rationalism.  It  will  show  us, 
too,  that  battles  which  have  been  fought  in  other  days 
and  in  other  lands,  and  only  the  far-off  noise  of  which 
we  have  heard,  have  been  renewed  at  our  own  altars 
and  firesides.  English  and  American  Christianity  is 
just  beginning  to  feel  the  fires  that  have  scorched  to 
the  very  bone  and  marrow  the  faithful  in  Germany  and 
Holland ;  and  the  sooner  our  schools  for  the  training  of 
the  Ministry  prepare  to  meet  them,  the  better  it  wiU  be. 
The  germs  of  the  Higher  Criticism  can  be  traced  to  the 
Reformers  of  the  sixteenth  century.  They  broke  in  upon 
the  traditional  theory  of  the  Canon,  by  casting  out  the 
Apocrypha.  They  examined  the  received  versions  of 
their  day,  and  threw  out  as  uninspired  the  Septuagint 
and  the  Vulgate,  falling  back  on  the  original  Hebrew 
and  Greek  texts.  They  denied  the  inspiration  of  the 
Massoretic  pointing  of  the  Hebrew  Scriptures.  They 
attacked  the  allegorical  method  of  interpretation,  and 
insisted  on  the  surface  or  grammatical  sense.  Luther 
and  Calvin  and  Zwingli,  and  their  immediate  disciples, 
expressed  themselves  on  questions  of  Scripture  author- 
ship with  a  freedom  hardly  surpassed   in   later  times. 


Activity  of  the  Clergy  in  Sacred  Studies.       235 

Luther  denied  that  Solomon  wrote  Ecclesiastes,  that  St. 
John  wrote  the  Apocalypse,  that  St.  James  was  an  Apos- 
tolic writing,  that  St.  Jude  was  an  independent  Epistle, 
and,  not  hesitating  to  go  as  far  as  the  boldest  criticism  of 
to-day,  raised  doubts  as  to  the  Mosaic  authorship  of  the 
Pentateuch.  Calvin  waxed  equally  bold,  and  challenged 
the  Pauline  authorship  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews ; 
questioned  whether  St.  Peter  wrote  the  second  Epistle 
credited  to  him ;  declared  that  there  were  many  parts  of 
the  Psalter  not  written  by  David,  and  that  the  book  as 
we  have  it  was  compiled  by  Ezra,  that  Ezra  wrote  the 
prophecy  of  Malachi,  and  that  the  only  really  important 
part  of  the  Mosaic  legislation  was  the  Ten  Command- 
ments. What  these  leaders  said  was  echoed,  with  divers 
additions,  by  their  followers.  Since  the  Reformation, 
there  have  been  three  distinct  revivals  of  what  may  be 
called  critical  enterprise:  the  first  taking  in  hand  the 
Canon  of  Scripture ;  the  second,  the  original  texts  and 
versions  ;  and  the  third,  that  of  our  own  time,  the  pure- 
ly literary  characteristics  of  the  Bible.  Among  other 
fore-runners  in  the  seventeenth  century,  of  the  Higher 
Criticism,  were  Spinoza,  the  apostate  Jew  and  panthe- 
istic philosopher,  and  Richard  Simon,  a  Koman  Catholic. 
The  former  asserted  that  Moses  could  not  have  written 
the  Pentateuch  ;  that  the  Old  Testament,  from  Genesis 
through  the  Books  of  Kings,  was  one  historical  work ; 
that  the  Books  of  Chronicles  belong  to  the  Maccabtean 
period,  and  the  Proverbs  to  the  time  of  Josiah ;  that  the 
prophetical  books  are  a  mere  conglomeration  of  frag- 
ments ;  and  that  the  Book  of  Job  was  translated  into 
Hebrew  from  a  foreign  tongue.     The  latter  bent  himself 


236       Activity  of  the  Clergy  in  Sacred  Studies. 

to  the  task  of  elaborating  the  proofs  of  the  non-Mosaic 
authorship  of  the  Pentateuch,  and  far  excelled  the  for- 
mer in  extent  and  thoroughness  of  investigation.  In 
the  eighteenth  century,  several  Roman-Catholic  divines, 
including  Vitringa  and  Abbe  Fleury,  advocated  the 
theory  of  a  second-hand  composition  of  Genesis  by 
Moses,  or  what  was  known  as  the  documentary  theory ; 
while  Astruc,  a  physician  of  the  same  faith,  announced 
what  he  claimed  to  be  a  great  discovery,  which  Eichhorn 
and  the  majority  of  Biblical  scholars  subsequently  con- 
ceded to  be  such,  —  viz.,  that  the  Book  of  Genesis  is 
divided,  by  the  use  of  the  Divine  names  Elohim  and 
Jehovah,  into  two  large  and  several  lesser  memoirs.  But 
it  was  Bishop  Lowth's  work  on  Hebrew  poetry,  that  gave 
the  renewed  impulse  to  the  literary  study  of  the  Scripture 
in  this  century.  This  work,  translated  into  German, 
awoke  the  genius  of  the  poet  Herder,  who,  saturated  with 
the  Oriental  spirit,  compelled  the  attention  of  German 
scholars  to  the  unrivalled  beauties  of  the  Old-Testament 
literature.  But  it  was  the  work  of  Eichhorn,  in  1 780, 
that  gathered  up  and  organized  the  critical  labors  of  all 
his  predecessors  in  this  field,  and  won  for  itself  the  title, 
made  so  familiar  in  after-days,  the  Higher  Criticism. 
The  next  chapter  of  the  movement  was  opened  by 
De  Wette,  who  gave  himself  to  the  investigation  of  the 
origin  of  the  documents  alleged  to  have  been  used  by 
Moses  in  writing  the  Pentateuch,  and  by  other  Scripture- 
writers  in  their  respective  works.  Of  theorizing  on  this 
subject  there  was  no  end ;  but  if  the  clashing  conjectures 
brought  forth  no  other  fruit,  because  of  the  paucity  of 
the  facts  on  which  they  proceeded,  they  at  least  made 


Activity  of  the  Clergy  in  Sacred  Studies.       237 

themselves  memorable  by  paving  the  way  for  the  next 
chapter  of  the  Higher  Criticism,  inaugurated  for  the  New 
Testament  by  the  Tubingen  school,  and  for  the  Old  by 
Keuss  and  his  school,  both  reaching  the  climax  of  destruc- 
tive scholarship  by  their  attempts  to  rebuild,  on  a  basis 
of  absolute  naturalism,  the  entire  series  of  the  Sacred 
Writings.  They  exaggerated  discrepancies  to  an  extent 
that  rendered  their  reconciliation  impossible  ;  and  boldly 
advanced  the  theory,  that  the  literature  and  religion  of 
both  Testaments  could  be  accounted  for  by  antagonistic 
forces  struggling  for  the  mastery.  The  story  as  to  how 
they  were  answered  by  Neander,  Hofmann,  and  Ewald, 
and  their  disciples,  as  regards  the  New-Testament  litera- 
ture and  faith,  is  too  familiar  to  be  repeated  here.  The 
substance  of  the  answer  was,  that  all  the  alleged  diver- 
sities and  antagonisms  met,  and  were  reconciled,  in  a 
higher  unity  of  thought  and  life.^  The  Higher  Criticism 
having  exhausted  its  resources,  or  become  weary  of  the 
long  series  of  attacks  and  counter-attacks,  in  Germany, 
crossed  the  English  Channel,  and  stirred  up  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  world  by  Bishop  Colenso's  assault  on  the  histori- 
cal character  of  the  Pentateuch  and  the  Book  of  Joshua, 
and  still  more  by  the  rationalistic  virus  of  the  "Essays 
and  Eeviews."  The  authors  of  the  latter  simply  paraded 
in  the  faded  finery  of  defunct  schools,  —  notably  in  that 
of  the  old  deists  and  of  the  later  anti-supernaturalism  of 
De  Wette  and  Baur.     Colenso's  work  has  not  died  as 

1  For  a  learned  and  luminous  treatment  of  this  and  kindred  topics,  to 
which  I  have  been  able  to  allude  only  in  a  passing  way,  see  Biblical 
Study,  its  Principles,  Methods,  etc.,  by  Professor  C.  A.  Briggs,  D.D., 
New  York,  1883. 


238       Activity  of  the  Clergy  in  Sacred  Studies. 

easily  as  "  Essays  and  Reviews."  Curiously  enough,  as 
for  another  sort  of  work  Bishop  Lowth  begot  Herder, 
and  for  still  another  Hume  begot  Kant,  so  Colenso,  in 
order  that  the  most  advanced  radicalism  might  not  be 
without  its  file  leader,  begot  the  Dutch  scholar  Kuenen, 
who  just  at  this  time  is  the  bright  cynosure  of  the 
Higher  Criticism.  Of  the  further  cropping-out  of  this 
movement  in  diluted  forms  in  Great  Britain  and  Amer- 
ica, of  the  threadbare  reproduction  and  second-hand 
scintillations  of  it  in  some  of  our  pulpits  and  professional 
chairs,  it  were  useless  to  speak ;  if  for  no  other  reason, 
because  it  were  idle  to  attack  the  tyros  and  novices  of 
rationalism  when  more  formidable  antagonists  are  to  be 
looked  after. 

We  should  remember,  however,  that  while  the  Higher 
Criticism  has  been  thus  far  destructive,  it  is  not  in  itself 
necessarily  so,  and  may  not  prove  so  in  the  near  future.^ 
Alford  and  Wordsworth  and  Lightfoot  and  Westcott  and 

1  It  is  sad  to  recall  the  "wrong-headed  and  wrong-hearted  temper  often 
displayed  on  the  destructive  side  of  the  so-called  Higher  Criticism,  and 
interwoven  with  it  the  vast  wastage  of  intellectual  power  amid  the  bottom- 
less quicksands  of  learned  conjecture  and  speculation.  It  is  hard,  indeed, 
to  suppress  a  feeling  of  righteous  indignation,  when  one  examines  in 
detail  the  more  radical  positions  successively  held  and  abandoned  by  Ger- 
man extremists  under  the  guise  of  progressive  scholarship  and  candid 
investigation.  They  have  treated  the  Sacred  Writings  with  all  the  less 
reverence  because  of  their  claim  to  a  Divine  origin.  Time  and  again  they 
have  torn  to  pieces  and  reconstructed  the  life  of  the  chosen  people  of 
God,  drawing  the  materials  of  their  artificial  fabrics  not  so  much  from 
credible  historic  records  as  from  their  own  consciousness.  So  with  New- 
Testament  history  and  the  early  Christian  life  associated  with  it.  Their 
dogmatism  has  surpassed,  by  a  long  way,  that  of  the  so-called  traditional  or 
scholastic  theologians ;  while  their  contradictory  conclusions  on  matters  of 
vital  concern,  each  announced  in  turn  as  a  positive  discovery,  make  one 


Activity  of  the  Clergy  in  Sacred  Studies.       239 

Ellicott,  to  name  no  others,  illustrate  what  it  may  be 
when  pursued  in  a  reverent  and  devout  spirit.  Antipa- 
thy to  the  supernatui'al  is  its  accidental,  not  its  essen- 

wonder  at  the  hold  they  took  on  the  sober  thought  of  the  time.  As 
examples,  take  the  following  :  — 

Moses  wrote  parts  of  the  Pentateuch.  —  Moses  had  no  hand  at  all  in 
it :  it  was  a  compilation,  at  a  much  later  date,  from  primitive  documents 
preserved  in  the  national  archives. 

Moses,  in  forming  the  Hebrew  ritual  and  in  many  other  things,  bor- 
rowed largely  from  the  Egyptians.  —  The  Mosaic  legislation,  so  called,  as 
a  whole  did  not  emerge  until  after  the  Captivity. 

Deuteronomy  was  the  earliest  of  the  five  books.  —  Deuteronomy  was 
the  late'st  of  tlfe  five  books. 

The  Hebrew  worship  was  designed  to  shut  out  idolatry,  and  was 
relentless  in  the  execution  of  this  design.  —  The  Hebrew  worship,  in  many 
of  its  ritual  and  symbolic  arrangements,  was  intensely  idolatrous. 

Moses  did  not  write  the  books  ascribed  to  him,  but  he  may  have 
written  the  Book  of  Job.  —  The  authorship  of  the  Book  of  Job  is  abso- 
lutely unknown,  and  Job  himself  is  a  myth. 

The  prophets,  by  a  special  exaltation  of  their  spiritual  consciousness, 
were  able  to  forecast  events.  —  The  prophets  were  no  more  than  earnest 
and  fearless  teachers  of  fundamental  moral  duties,  in  times  of  forgetful- 
ness  and  disobedience:  their  predictions  were  after-thoughts  credited  to 
them  in  order  to  give  them  greater  authority,  or  they  turned  out  to  be 
mistakes,  and  in  either  case  were  fictitious. 

As  for  the  New  Testament,  the  writers  were  genuine  historic  men,  and 
set  down  honestly  and  simply  what  they  saw  and  knew.  It  is  very  doubt- 
ful whether  St.  John  wrote  any  thing  more  than  one  Epistle.  The  Four 
Evangelists  were  so  warped  and  colored  by  education,  by  local  prejudice, 
and  by  race-feeling,  that  they  were  incompetent  to  give  a  true  account  of 
the  real  teaching  and  work  of  Christ.  St.  Paul  was  such  a  mixture 
of  the  Jew  and  the  Greek,  that  all  doctrine  in  his  hands  was  seriously 
deflected  from  its  proper  line.  St.  Jude  did  not  write  the  Epistle  that 
bears  his  name,  but  some  one  else  extracted  it  from  the  writings  of  St. 
Peter. 

As  for  the  Christ,  he  founded  a  Divine  society.  He  introduced  only 
ideas,  principles.  He,  in  some  mysterious  sense,  came  forth  from  God. 
Rationally  considered,  he  was  a  time-growth,  and  embodied  the  ideal  of 
humanity  as  a  time-growth  out  of  its  own  progressive  consciousness. 


240       Activity/  of  the  Clergy  in  Sacred  Studies. 

tial  characteristic.  As  the  day  of  faith  returns,  as  it 
certainly  will,  more  faith  and  less  doubt  will  enter  into 
its  work.  But  persistent  and  mighty  as  have  been  its 
assaults  during  the  century  past,  and  profound  as  have 
been  the  fear  and  agitation  it  has  excited,  the  net 
result,  when  brought  down  to  its  actual  substance,  is 
thus  summed  up  by  the  majority  of  our  best  Biblical 
scholars:  "While  some  of  our  traditional  teachings  will 
have  to  be  modified  to  a  considerable  extent  in  the 
several  departments  of  Biblical  study,  nothing  has  been 
established  by  modern  critical  work  that  will  at  all  dis- 
turb the  statements  of  the  orthodox  dogmatic  symbols  of 
our  day  with  reference  to  the  authority  of  the  Word 
of  God."  But  there  is  another  moral  to  be  pointed. 
If  in  the  past  the  theological  and  clerical  mind  has 
displayed  immense  learning  and  intellectual  activity  in 
meeting  the  adversaries  of  the  truth,  what  a  call  have 
we  in  the  present,  and  what  a  call  shall  we  have  in  the 
near  future,  as  the  ordained  deputies  of  the  Christ,  to 
so  advance  in  sound  learning  and  godly  zeal  as  that  the 
ark  of  true  religion  committed  to  our  keeping  shall 
suffer  neither  miscarriage  nor  spoliation  by  the  hands 
of  its  enemies ! 


LECTURE   VI. 

MATERIAL  AND  TRAINING  FOR  THE  MINISTRY. 

In  the  remaining  lectures,  our  attention  will  be  given 
to  the  positive,  or  constructive,  side  of  the  general  sub- 
ject; i.e.,  to  showing  what  is  needed,  and  what  it  is  in 
our  power  to  do,  for  the  renewal  and  invigoration  of  the 
gifts  and  functions,  and  with  these  of  the  influence  of 
the  Sacred  Office. 

The  Church  has  of  late  had,  in  some  respects,  an 
unhappy  experience  in  the  period  previous  to  ordina- 
tion. It  is  believed  by  many,  that  the  best  material  is 
not  offered  as  freely  for  the  Ministry  as  for  other  learned 
callings.  The  Church  is  not  privileged  with  a  wide 
range  of  selection.  .It  is  commonly  understood,  that, 
failing  to  secure  the  young  life  which  the  dignity  and 
importance  of  her  work  ought  to  command,  she  is  forced 
to  take  what  she  can  get.  The  demand  for  recruits  so 
far  exceeds  the  supply,  that,  though  maintaining  towards 
those  without,  the  traditionally  lofty  attitude  as  to  tests 
and  requirements,  she  more  than  winks  at  a  rule  in  the 
choice  of  candidates  which  may  be  mildly  characterized 
as  generously  easy  and  conveniently  blind.  To  fend  off 
ignorance  and  mediocrity,  and  the  low  ambitions  which 
may  put  on  the  disguise  of  pious  desires,  she  builds 


242        Material  and  Training  for  the  Ministry. 

the  canonical  fences  very  high ;  and  then,  under  one 
plea  or  another,  she  allows  the  functionaries  of  volun- 
tary societies,  her  Clergy  and  Standing  Committees,  and 
even  her  Bishops,  a  dangerous  discretion  in  taking  them 
down.  Looking  back  over  the  past  twenty  years,  it  is 
not  too  much  to  say  that  only  very  marked  disabilities 
of  mind  and  body  could  have  discouraged  any  one  from 
applying  to  be  received  as  a  candidate  for  Holy  Orders. 
Certainly  any  ordinary  weakness,  any  open  question 
of  perceptible  fitness,  any  grade  of  mental  inferiority 
consistent  with  the  possession  of  common-sense,  has 
apparently  operated  to  the  disadvantage  of  no  pious 
single-hearted  soul  who  could  persuade  himself  that  the 
Christian  Priesthood  oifered  a  nobler  sphere  of  influ- 
ence than  private  life.  There  has  been  no  Aaronic  or 
Levitical  line  to  choose  from ;  and  owing  to  the  temper 
of  the  time  on  the  one  hand,  and  to  the  solemn  urgen- 
cies of  her  mission  on  the  other,  the  Church  has  been 
in  no  condition  to  demand  the  firstlings  of  the  flock  or 
the  lambs  without  blemish.  Failing  to  command  at  will 
the  gold  and  silver  of  intellect  and  culture,  she  has  been 
constrained  to  accept,  not  seldom,  the  humbler  talent  of 
coarser  metals. 

The  causes  which  have  crippled  the  supply,  and  low- 
ered the  standard  of  the  recruits  for  the  Ministry,  are 
strengthened,  rather  than  weakened,  by  the  present  drift 
of  things.  The  expense  and  difficulty  of  a  complete 
academic  and  theological  education;  the  new  profes- 
sions and  employments  introduced  by  our  many-sided 
life,  all  requiring  a  thorough  training  and  a  vigorous 
intellect,  and  offering  inviting  opportunities  to  secure 


Material  and  Training  for  the  Ministry.        243 

wealth  and  promotion ;  the  meagreness  of  clerical  sup- 
port, aggravated  by  the  more  costly  scale  of  modem 
social  life  ;  the  unhappy  divisions  which  have  disquieted 
the  Church ;  the  doubtful  and  shifting  opinions,  even 
upon  the  most  vital  theological  issues ;  the  consequent 
hesitancy  and  embarrassment  in  the  minds  of  many 
thoughtful  and  conscientious  youths ;  the  persistent 
purpose  of  some  within,  and  more  without,  the  Church, 
to  make  the  most  of  her  troubles  and  imperfections, 
whether  real  or  imaginary ;  the  alternating  fortunes  of 
ecclesiastical  parties ;  the  unsettled  relations  between 
Christianity  and  the  more  advanced  schools  of  thought, 
—  these,  together  with  other  admitted  symptoms  of  a 
period  of  transition,  are  influences  which,  there  can  be 
little  doubt,  will  combine  to  hinder  many  choice  spirits 
from  seeking  to  serve  at  our  altars ;  while  they  will  also 
bring  to  the  surface  many  more  not  so  choice,  who,  in 
such  a  time  of  change  and  agitation,  will  be  only  too 
ready  to  accept  any  opening  to  ecclesiastical  employ- 
ment which  promises  respectability  and  support.  Now, 
no  training,  however  perfect,  can  create  a  high  order  of 
clerical  character  and  service  out  of  such  material.  The 
more  of  it  we  put  in  surplices,  the  weaker  we  shall  be, 
and  the  louder  will  be  the  complaint,  already  so  preva- 
lent among  the  laity,  and  so  often  echoed  by  the  secular 
press,  of  unfledged  divines,  shallow  theology,  crude  dis- 
courses, and  perfunctory  ministrations.  I  say,  then, 
antecedently  to  the  question  of  training,  that,  if  the 
influence  of  the  Ministry  is  to  be  maintained  at  even  its 
past  average,  and  not  allowed  to  shrink  away  gradually 
into  feebleness  and  obscurity,  the  Church  must  hence- 


244        Material  and  Training  for  the  Ministry. 

forth  exercise  more  care  and  vigilance  in  the  selection 
of  the  raw  material  on  which  her  theological  schools 
are  to  work. 

Again,  and  for  the  same  reason,  assuming  that  the 
raw  material  is  of  the  right  quality  as  to  native  tex- 
ture and  vigor,  the  Church  must  bring  to  bear  a  more 
scrupulous  judgment  in  determining  what  constitutes 
a  valid  call  to  the  office  and  work  of  a  Priest  in  the 
Kingdom  of  God.  It  is  to  be  feared  that  loose  views 
and  a  looser  practice  have  obtained  a  foot-hold  among 
us  on  this  vital  point.  I  allude,  of  course,  to  the  indi- 
vidual, subjective  side  of  a  call.  One  has  only  to  go 
over  the  subject  with  the  majority  of  young  men  offering 
themselves  for  the  Sacred  Office,  to  discover  the  evil  and 
the  danger  now  threatening  us  from  this  quarter.  Some 
think  themselves  justified  m  looking  forward  to  the  Min- 
istry if  they  have  become  seriously  interested  in,  and 
have  learned  to  reflect  soberly  on  religious  questions. 
Others  imagine  themselves  duly  persuaded  in  this  solemn 
matter  if  they  are  conscious  of  a  strong  desire  to  be 
useful  in  promoting  the  interests  of  the  Church  and  of 
humanity.  Still  others  arrive  at  the  same  conclusion 
through  the  suggestion  of  friends  who  see  in  them  gifts 
and  abilities  which  they  fancy  would  insure  them  power 
and  reputation  in  the  pulpit,  or  popularity  in  the  pastor- 
ate. On  all  sides  we  encounter  a  state  of  feeling  which 
makes  it  easy — altogether  too  easy  —  for  the  mechanic, 
the  tradesman,  the  farmer,  the  lawyer,  the  physician,  to 
abandon  their  callings,  and  attempt  the  functions  of  the 
Sacred  Ministry,  which,  beyond  any  thing  else  in  life  if 
they  are  rightly  discharged,  take  hold  on  the  strongest 


Material  and  Training  for  the  Ministry.        215 

convictions  and  profoundest  experiences  of  the  soul.  It 
is  a  state  of  mind  often  produced  by  consciousness  of 
failure  in  secular  work,  or  by  native  restlessness  of  tem- 
perament, or  by  the  ambition  to  figure  in  a  more  conspic- 
uous sphere,  or  by  the  desire  to  enjoy  what  is  supposed 
to  be  the  easy  dignity  and  comfortable  respectability  of 
a  vocation  which  surrounds  itself  with  an  atmosphere 
of  quiet  thought  and  sympathetic  fellowship.  But  men 
lifted  into  the  Ministry  by  such  motives  can  never  rise 
above  the  lowest  grade  of  moral  power.  The  first  wave 
of  tribulation  that  strikes  them  will  draw  from  their 
lips  the  cry  of  cowards  and  time-servers.  Never  will 
be  heard,  even  in  any  chance  moment  of  spmtual  exal- 
tation, trembling  on  their  tongues  in  pathetic,  victorious 
earnestness,  the  words,  "  Woe  is  unto  me  if  I  preach 
not  the  Gospel,"  ^  "  I  count  all  things  but  loss  for  the 
excellency  of  the  knowledge  of  Christ  Jesus  my  Lord."  ^ 
Never  need  the  Church  expect  from  such  any  personal 
sacrifice,  that  "  no  ofi"ence  be  given  in  any  thing,"  and 
"  that  the  Ministry  be  not  blamed."  ^  To  them,  afilic- 
tions,  necessities,  distresses,  tumults,  labors,  watchings, 
fastings,  obscurity,  isolation,  poverty,  are  sources  of 
death,  not  life.  They  may  abound  in  great  words,  but 
they  will  be  barren  of  great  deeds.  The  fire  that  tries 
them  will  prove  them  dross,  and  the  furnace  will  cast 
them  out  as  the  refuse  of  God's  Kingdom.  If  the 
Church  is  to  have  a  Priesthood  worthy  of  the  Word  she 
has  been  commissioned  to  preach  and  of  the  work  she 
has  undertaken  to  do,  she  must  teach  more  and  more 
the  men  whom  she  ordains,  that  they  must  rise  above 
1  1  Cor.  ix.  16.  2  PhU.  iii.  8.  »  2  Cor.  vi.  3. 


246        Material  and  Training  for  the  Ministry. 

all  secondary  motives  grounded  in  mere  taste  or  prefer- 
ence, or  general  intellectual  and  moral  bias,  and  pass 
wholly  into  the  region  of  those  primary  and  fundamental 
motives  which  are  alone  spoken  of  and  relied  upon  in 
the  Scriptures  of  the  New  Testament.  She  must  have 
the  witness  of  the  Holy  Ghost  working  with  and  work- 
ing through  the  judgment  and  volition  of  the  individual 
soul. 

Clearly  the  time  has  come  when  the  Bishops  of  the 
Church  must  exercise  greater  care  in  selecting  and 
receiving  postulants.  No  duty  can  be  more  important 
than  this,  and  none  requii-es  more  pains-taking  discrimi- 
nation for  its  due  performance.  If  the  morale  of  the 
Ministry  is  ever  to  be  made  what  it  ought  to  be,  and 
must  be  in  order  to  sway  the  mind  and  heart  of  this 
generation,  the  random,  hap-hazard  method  of  dealing 
with  this  interest,  so  prevalent  in  the  recent  past,  must 
cease.  Much  good  material  has  come  to  us  by  what 
seems  like  a  happy  accident,  but  more  of  another  sort 
has  been  imposed  upon  us  by  the  lack  of  suitable  vigi- 
lance. We  must  abandon  the  notion  that  candidates 
will  diift  in  upon  us  as  they  are  wanted,  like  waifs 
from  the  outer  world.  The  manhood  we  want  must  be 
sought  out  in  early  youth,  and  the  Church's  seal  fixed 
upon  it  at  the  start.  The  Church  must  help  to  fashion 
the  lives  and  characters  of  those  who  farther  on  are  to 
be  trained  in  her  theological  schools.  We  may  believe 
with  all  our  hearts  that  "  Almighty  God,  who  has  pur- 
chased to  Himself  an  Universal  Church  by  the  precious 
blood  of  His  dear  Son,  will "  in  this  matter  "  mercifully 
look  upon  the  same."     We  may  believe,  as  we  ought, 


Material  and  Training  fm"  the  Ministry.        247 

that  the  Holy  Ghost,  who  perpetually  applies  to  the 
Church's  needs  the  virtue  of  Christ's  indwelling  pres- 
ence, and  who,  through  this,  oils  the  joints  and  repairs 
the  wastage  of  the  Church's  organic  machinery,  will  not 
fail  to  provide  in  some  way  a  due  supply  of  "  stewards 
of  the  mysteries  of  God."  We  may  pray  statedly,  as 
we  are  bound  to  do,  that  God  will  "  so  guide  and  govern 
the  minds  of  His  servants  the  Bishops  and  Pastors  of 
His  flock,  that  they  may  faithfully  and  wisely  make 
choice  of  fit  persons  to  serve  in  the  Sacred  Ministry." 
But  we  must  remember  that  all  such  believing  and 
praying,  as  in  other  cases,  so  in  this,  will  amount  to 
little  unless  accompanied  and  followed  by  the  active 
and  habitual  cu'cumspection  which  they  are  intended  to 
inspire.  Certainly  the  guiding  and  governing  sought 
for,  even  if  granted  in  most  liberal  measure,  do  not 
excuse  the  Church's  responsible  officers  from  the  most 
watchful  and  scrupulous  exercise  of  their  own  conscience 
and  judgment.  I  have  dwelt  on  this  point  the  more  at 
length,  because  no  careful  observer  can  fail  to  trace 
some  of  the  most  serious  deficiencies  and  inaptitudes 
of  not  a  few  of  our  living  Clergy  to  the  source  I  have 
indicated. 

I  shall  now  ask  attention  to  some  thoughts  on  our 
present  methods  of  training  candidates  for  the  Priest- 
hood. This  work  is  done  mainly  by  institutions  built  up 
and  endowed  for  the  purpose.  Some  of  these  institu- 
tions are  officered  by  able,  experienced,  and  earnest  men, 
—  men  keenly  alive  to  the  gravity  of  their  task  and 
to  the  demands  of  the  Church.  But  to  the  discredit, 
and  I  had  almost  said  the  shame,  of  the   Church,  it 


24:8        Material  and  Training  for  the  Ministry. 

must  be  admitted,  that,  in  this  age  of  remarkable  fore- 
thought and  liberality  in  general  and  denominational 
educational  interests,  not  one  of  these  Schools  of  the 
Prophets  has  been  furnished  with  the  appliances  essen- 
tial to  any  successful  attempt  at  building  up  and  main- 
taining a  high  order  of  sacred  learning.  This  is  not 
the  place  for  details  on  this  subject :  I  say  therefore, 
generally,  that  neither  the  Chiu'ch  collectively  nor  any 
of  her  individual  officers  or  members  has  a  right  to 
complain  of,  or,  except  in  the  most  considerate  manner, 
to  criticise,  the  work  actually  done  in  such  schools,  until 
they  shall  have  provided  them  with  a  much  more  com- 
plete and  effective  equipment  than  they  now  possess. 
It  is  not  my  purpose  either  to  complain  of  or  to  criticise 
our  Schools,  but  to  deal  in  a  broad  spirit  with  the  gen- 
eral subject  of  theological  training.^  The  best  of  them 
are  capable  of  abundant  improvement.  And  yet,  when 
we  consider  their  disadvantages  ;  when  we  remember 
the  quality  of  much  of  the  material  they  are  required  to 
work  upon,  the  crudeness  and  meagreness  in  many  cases 
of  its  previous  academic  preparation,  the  unrebuked 
hurry  and  impatience  of  candidates  to  push  through  the 

1  Of  this  (the  General  Theologfical  Seminary),  the  oldest,  best- 
known,  and  most  influential  of  our  Schools  of  the  Prophets,  I  rejoice  to 
say,  in  this  connection,  that  the  present  outlook  is  most  encouraging. 
Ten  years  more  of  the  same  large-minded,  conciliatory,  judicious,  and 
enterprising  administration  that  has  of  late  quickened  and  blessed  it, 
will  not  only  win  for  it  the  affectionate  good- will,  and  justify  the  best 
hopes,  of  the  Church,  but  will  assuredly  advance  it  to  the  very  front  rank 
among  the  few  really  first-class  theological  institutions  in  the  land. 
Speedily  may  it  lead  the  way  to  the  higher  learning,  the  riper  scholarship, 
the  loftier  standard,  of  priestly  attainment  and  outfit,  now  sorely  needed 
by  the  Church,  but  to  be  still  more  needed  by  her  in  the  next  generation ! 


Material  and  Training  for  the  Ministry.        249 

prescribed  curriculum  of  study,  the  half-endowed  profess- 
orships, the  chronic  poverty  which  sometimes  obliges 
one  teacher  to  do  the  duties  of  two,  the  ill-appointed 
libraries,  half-starved  for  lack  of  stated  income  to  feed 
them,  in  some  cases  complete  in  nothing,  and  thinly 
sprinkled  with  the  treasures  of  patristic  and  modem 
learning, — when  we  recall  these  facts,  we  cannot  but 
wonder  that  these  Schools  acquit  themselves  as  well  as 
they  do,  or  that  the  men  whom  they  graduate  do  not 
give  the  Church  greater  cause  to  mourn  over  the  short- 
comings of  her  Ministry. 

To  invigorate  and  expand  the  influence  of  the  Minis- 
try, to  make  it  in  quahty  and  degree  what  the  interests 
of  religion  in  this  age  demand,  certain  things  must  be 
done,  certain  results  attained,  not  yet  found  in  any  exist- 
ing system  of  clerical  training,  Romish  or  Protestant  or 
Anglican.  They  relate  not  to  technical  studies,  or  to 
modes  of  prosecuting  them ;  they  are  not,  and  cannot 
be  the  offspring  of  class-room  drill.  They  pertain  to  the 
normal  animus  of  the  Priesthood.  They  are  to  the  char- 
acter and  manners  and  work  of  the  individual  Priest, 
what  the  atmosphere  is  to  the  picture,  or  expression  is 
to  the  human  face.  Beyond  all  else  save  the  immediate 
operation  of  the  Holy  Spu'it,  they  determine  the  tone  of 
the  Ministry  ;  giving  it  individuality  without  individual- 
ism, a  large  sympathy  without  loss  of  intensity  of  feeling 
for  special  ends,  a  lofty  purpose  without  pride  of  office, 
and  the  power  to  endure  hardness  without  being  soured 
or  chilled  by  trial  and  privation.  If  we  examine  the 
preparatory  collegiate  training  of  young  men  in  our  day, 
whether  intended  for  the  Ministry  or  not,  we  shall  find 


250        Material  and  Training  for  the  Ministry. 

that  the  tendency  in  Roman-Catholic  schools  is  to  ex- 
clude the  intellectual  and  religious  forces  of  the  present^ 
and  to  fashion  the  mind  and  heart  only  by  the  past ; 
while  in  most  so-called  Protestant  institutions  among 
ourselves,  the  tendency  is  rather  to  make  doubters  and 
thinkers  than  believers.  The  result  in  the  one  case  is 
to  make  men  powerless  to  understand  modern  life ;  in 
the  other,  to  make  them  powerless  to  direct  it  in  whole- 
some channels.  If  this  alternative  were  inevitable,  we 
might  despair  of  all  efforts  to  educate  the  complete 
Christian  or  the  well-furnished  Priest.  Men  may  acqui- 
esce in  it,  but  it  is  idle  to  say  that  it  is  forced  upon  them. 
The  problem  before  us  is  to  rear  minds  that  will  sympa- 
thize with  life  as  it  is,  and  yet  not  be  dominated  by  it ; 
that  will  exhibit  scholarly  vigor  and  freshness  in  han- 
dling the  issues  of  the  time,  and  yet  bear  themselves  in 
all  inquiries  and  controversies  as  though  the  fundament- 
al principles  of  morals  and  religion  were  settled,  and  so 
settled  as  not  to  admit  of  successful  impeachment ;  that 
will  welcome  all  the  light  the  age  can  shed  on  any  and 
all  subjects,  and  yet  abide  steadfastly  in  the  conviction, 
that,  on  some  subjects  of  chiefest  moment,  faith  casts  a 
surer  light  than  reason ;  that  will  admit  that  there  is 
nothing  too  sacred  for  investigation,  and  yet  affirm  that 
there  are  some  things  with  regard  to  which  belief  is  the 
only  inlet  to  knowledge ;  and,  finally,  that  will  challenge 
authority  when  it  plays  the  tyrant,  or  usurps  the  pre- 
rogative of  personal  infallibility,  and  yet  will  lovingly 
accept,  as  the  ground  of  all  thought  in  matters  of  duty 
and  faith,  the  ancient  and  catholic  traditions  which 
enshrine,  alongside  the  Word  of  God,  the  best  thinking 


Material  and  Training  for  the  Ministry.        25 1 

and  purest  living  of  the  Christian  centuries.  This  is  no 
impossible  problem.  It  belongs  to  the  genius  of  this 
Chui-ch  to  produce  such  minds,  and  it  ought  to  be  her 
care  to  gather  more  of  them  into  her  Ministry.  It 
should  be  the  aim  of  her  colleges  to  plant  the  germs  of 
such  a  culture,  as  it  should  be  the  duty  of  her  Semi- 
naries of  theology  to  foster  them,  and  of  her  Chief 
Pastors  to  endue  their  ripened  fruit,  in  Christ's  name, 
with  the  gifts  and  graces  of  Ordination. 

And  here  I  venture  a  word  upon  the  question,  now 
so  often  mooted,  whether  our  training  sufficiently  recog- 
nizes the  drift  of  living  thought,  and  duly  qualifies  the 
average  Priest  to  deal  with  it.  It  were  easy  to  state  the 
desiderata  in  this  direction.  It  is  said  that  the  faith  of 
the  Church  is  now  on  trial  before  the  most  critical  and 
unsparing  court  that  ever  sat  upon  its  claims  ;  that  the 
common  mind  of  the  day  is  leavened  with  doubts  born 
of  its  knowledge,  not  of  its  ignorance ;  that  objections 
to  Christianity,  many  of  them  originating  from  the 
recent  advances  of  science  and  speculation,  were  never 
urged  with  so  much  learning,  acuteness,  and  argumenta- 
tive force.  In  a  certain  large  way,  too,  it  is  said,  that 
as  from  natural  science,  philosophy,  history,  and  litera- 
ture, the  adversaries  of  religion  draw  their  weapons  of 
assault,  so  no  training  for  the  Ministry  can  be  worthy  of 
the  name  which  does  not,  from  the  same  sources,  supply 
the  Clergy  with  the  means  of  defence.  And  so  in  the 
same  strain  we  are  told,  in  gross  and  in  detail,  what,  in 
view  of  the  extraordinary  mental  development  of  these 
times,  and  especially  in  view  of  their  intelligent,  wide- 
spread scepticism,  the  Clergy  ought  to  know,  to  com- 


252        Material  and  Training  for  the  Ministry. 

mand  respect  for  their  vocation.  Some  of  us  may  see 
a  slight  dash  of  exaggeration,  a  little  of  the  ever-recur- 
ring "  crisis  "  cry,  in  all  this  ;  but  all  of  us  who  have  our 
eyes  and  ears  open  must  admit  that  there  is  truth  enough 
in  it  to  justify  a  re-examination  of  our  methods  of  train- 
ing, in  order  to  ascertain  how  they  can  be  so  modified 
and  improved  as  to  cope  more  successfully  with  these 
aspects  of  the  times. 

In  the  present  exigencies  of  the  Church,  we  cannot 
hope  to  extend  the  time  —  the  canonical  three  years  — 
given  to  theological  studies  ;  but  all  who  are  competent 
to  speak  on  the  subject  declare  that  no  more  work  than 
is  now  done  can  be  crowded  into  this  space.  It  is  cer- 
tain, moreover,  that  no  part  of  the  present  curriculum 
can  be  safely  displaced  or  even  abbreviated.  As  things 
now  are,  no  branch  of  study  can  be  exhaustively  treated 
by  the  teacher,  or  thoroughly  handled  by  the  student. 
Both  do  their  work  with  an  irritating  sense  of  imperfec- 
tion. Some  suggest  an  easy  way  of  dealing  with  the 
dilemma.  They  raise  the  issue  between  past  and  present 
in  quite  the  same  spirit  in  which  it  is  now  being  venti- 
lated in  the  circles  of  academic  training.  The  time  is 
too  short  for  the  classics  and  for  modern  languages. 
The  former  are  important,  but  not  so  much  so  as  the 
latter :  therefore  their  lines  must  be  driven  in,  to  make 
more  room  for  what  represents  the  life  of  the  present. 
In  other  words,  the  past  is  well  enough  in  its  place  and 
degree,  but  it  must  not  interfere  with  the  franchises 
and  liberties  and  utilities  of  the  present.  Little  as  we 
sympathize  with  this  view,  it  may  be  allowed  to  pass 
unchallenged  in  the  sphere  of  merely  intellectual  train- 


Material  and  Training  for  the  Ministry.        253 

ing.  Not  so,  however,  in  that  of  theological  training. 
It  may  be  that  here  we  should  give  more  attention  to  the 
present,  but  surely  no  well-grounded  Churchman  will 
advise  us  to  give  less  to  the  past.  It  may  be  that  we 
should  be  more  as  men  of  understanding,  discerning  the 
signs  of  the  times,  and  taking  frequent  soundings  in  the 
cross-currents  of  living  thought ;  but  the  fact  remains, 
that  for  us,  all  Ritual,  Ecclesiastical,  Sacramental,  Dog- 
matic, Priestly  life  has  not  only  its  roots,  but  its  matured 
growths,  in  the  distant  past.  The  faith  we  teach  was 
once  and  forever  delivered.  As  it  came  to  us,  so  we  are 
to  hand  it  on.  It  can  gain  nothing  in  its  substance,  and 
it  must  lose  nothing  of  its  substance  in  our  keeping.  It 
enters  the  life  of  this  age  as  it  has  entered  the  life  of 
each  of  the  nineteen  centuries  behind  us,  —  as  a  finished 
force  from  without ;  by  some  of  them,  indeed,  rent 
in  twain,  by  others  sadly  corrupted  and  obscured,  by 
others  restored  to  its  early  purity,  but  by  none  advanced 
beyond  its  original  type.  Religiously  considered,  we 
have  no  possible  solution  for  the  problems  of  the  pres- 
ent, save  as  it  is  furnished  by  the  lights  streaming  over 
us  from  the  far-oif  sunrise  of  Judaea.  It  is  idle,  then, 
to  suggest  in  matters  of  theology  any  discount  of  the 
past  in  favor  of  the  present.  But  if  this  be  forbidden, 
there  is  something  we  can  do.  We  can  do  more  than 
we  have  done,  to  so  shape  the  studies  of  the  Christian 
past  as  to  give  them  a  more  vital  hold  upon  the  diffi- 
culties of  the  present.  The  matter  in  our  hands  is 
unchangeable ;  but  it  is  for  us  to  show,  not  only  what 
forms  it  assumed  to  meet  the  wants  of  this  or  that  age 
behind  us,  but  eminently  the  form  it  must  take  now 


254        Material  and  Training  for  the  Ministry. 

to  bring  into  unity  the  verities  of  revelation,  and  the 
healthy,  genuine  thought  of  living  minds.  It  is  incum- 
bent on  teachers  of  theology  to  concentrate  their  best 
learning  on  the  points  where  the  doubts  of  the  hour 
impinge  with  greatest  force.  It  is  for  them  to  show 
how  the  pen-and-ink  sketches  of  early  scepticisms,  here- 
sies, and  infidelities,  done  by  the  vigorous  hands  of  the 
Fathers,  have  their  exact  counterparts  to-day;  and  in 
doing  this,  to  prove  not  only  the  continuity,  but  as 
well  the  substantial  identity  from  the  beginning,  of  all 
the  oppositions  of  human  learning  and  speculation  to 
the  Gospel  of  the  Son  of  God.  It  will  doubly  arm  the 
student  of  to-day,  and  so  the  Priest  of  to-morrow,  in 
his  efforts  "  to  convince  the  gainsayer,"  and  to  prove  his 
"  aptness  to  teach  "  truth  doubted  or  denied,  if  he  can 
be  made  to  see  beyond  all  question,  in  the  spiritual- 
ist, the  materialist,  the  anti-supernaturalist,  the  agnostic, 
the  atheist,  now  vexing  and  disquieting  the  faith  of 
God's  people,  the  lineal  descendants  of  the  same  types 
of  character  in  the  Church's  infancy,  and  only  repro- 
duced from  age  to  age  by  a  law  of  heredity  operating  as 
surely  and  widely  in  the  world  of  thought  and  belief 
as  in  the  physical  world.  But  I  need  not  labor  the 
point  further.  The  present  curriculum  is  sufficiently 
comprehensive  and  elastic.  Without  adding  scarcely  a 
feather's  weight  to  their  bulk,  hermeneutics,  ecclesias- 
tical history.  Christian  evidences.  Christian  ethics,  and 
dogmatic  divinity  can  be  so  handled,  independently  of 
all  inventions,  novelties,  and  re-adjustments,  as  to  meet 
the  demands  of  the  time.  And  the  mental  energy,  the 
fresh  learning,  and  didactic  skill  are  not,  we  may  well 


Material  and  Training  for  the  Ministry.        255 

believe,  wanting  in  those  whom  the  matter  most  imme- 
diately concerns. 

Again,  in  the  matter  of  theological  training  we  may 
note  several  contrasted  methods,  as  to  the  comparative 
value  of  which  there  are  wide  differences  of  opinion. 
There  is  nothing  more  peculiar  in  the  whole  practical 
system  of  the  Church  of  England,  than  its  method  of 
educating  the  Clergy.  A  competent  witness  has  re- 
marked, that  there  are  no  Clergy  in  the  world  so  well 
educated  as  those  of  the  Church  of  England,  and  yet 
there  are  none  whose  education  has  so  little  reference 
to -the  special  duties  of  their  profession.  "The  study 
of  theology,  with  the  sacred  languages  and  literature,  is 
almost  entirely  neglected,  or,  at  the  most,  extends  only 
to  attendance  on  one  or  two  short  courses  of  routine 
lectures.  A  student  destined  for  the  Church  js  scarcely 
ever  called  upon  to  write  sermons  or  homilies  until  the 
Bishop's  examination,  and  his  first  effort  at  reading  or 
speaking  in  public  is  not  until  after  he  has  taken 
Deacon's  Orders.  The  result  is,  that  the  Clergyman  as 
a  public  teacher  is  unable,  with  all  his  education,  to  com- 
pete with  the  most  uneducated  preacher  that  harangues 
in  the  neighboring  Bethel  or  Bethesda.  These  are 
facts  (says  this  writer)  admitted  alike  by  all  parties  in 
the  Church  and  out  of  it." 

By  the  same  authority  it  is  stated,  that,  "  as  a  rule, 
the  Clergy  come  from  the  middle  and  higher  classes  of 
society.  They  are  sent  to  the  great  public  schools  and 
universities,  where  they  mix  with  those  of  their  own  age 
who  are  destined  for  other  professions  or  for  no  pro- 
fession at  all.     They  pursue  the  same  studies,  indulge 


256        Material  and  Training  for  the  Ministry. 

in  the  same  sports,  and  fall  into  the  same  sins,  as  their 
fellow-students.  Their  testimonials  are  signed,  as  a 
matter  of  course.  Their  Si  quis  is  read,  to  which  no 
one  pays  any  attention.  They  are  examined  by  the 
Bishop,  —  an  examination  which  is  often  the  merest 
imaginable  pretence.  They  are  ordained,  and  go  to 
work  in  their  parishes,  often  to  preach  a  Gospel  which 
they  have  never  learned,  to  expound  Scriptures  which 
they  have  never  studied,  and  to  address,  as  consolation 
to  the  sick  and  dying,  words  that  would  bring  no  conso- 
lation to  themselves."  ^ 

It  is  difficult  to  imagine  that  any  advantages  could 
grow  out  of  such  looseness  and  negligence  of  training. 
And  yet. the  very  authorities  that  are  severest  on  the 
evils  are  foremost  in  claiming  a  certain  superiority  for 
this  training.  They  tell  us  that  this  largely  non-pro- 
fessional training  is  of  great  value  to  the  Clergy  in 
many  ways.  It  avoids  the  danger  of  gradual  consolida- 
tion into  a  priestly  caste.  It  keeps  the  Clergy  abreast 
of  the  social  and  civil  life  around  them,  gives  them  a 
manly  and  intelligent  interest  in  all  that  is  of  moment  to 
other  men,  reminds  them  that  they  are  citizens  as  well  as 
Priests,  that  they  are  to  enjoy  the  comforts  and  discharge 
the  responsibilities  of  husbands  and  fathers.    Thus  such 

1  Contemporary  Essays  in  Theology,  by  Rev.  John  Hunt,  p.  507.  I 
should  scarcely  have  presumed  to  quote  such  a  description  of  the  slovenly 
and  neglectful  preparation  of  the  average  theological  student  in  the 
Mother  Church,  if  it  were  not  abundantly  confirmed  by  testimony  from 
other  sources.  In  some  of  the  debates  on  the  supply  and  training  of 
Clergymen,  in  the  reported  Proceedings  of  more  than  one  of  the  Church 
Congresses,  within  the  past  ten  years,  language  is  used  quite  as  strong  as 
that  quoted  above. 


Material  and  Training  for  the  Ministrj/.        257 

a  training  widens  out  the  sympathies,  enriches  the  expe- 
rience, and  multiplies  the  influence  of  the  Clergy ;  im- 
parting a  breadth  and  versatility  of  culture,  and  a  ready 
perception  of  the  symptoms  and  tendencies  and  wants 
of  the  various  forms  of  life  around  them,  which  a  more 
strictly  professional  preparation  could  not  give.  The 
m(Mel  Clergyman  of  England  may  fail  in  every  thing 
else,  without  necessarily  losing  his  position;  but  he 
must  not  fail  to  be  a  gentleman.  Society  and  the  State 
have  claims  upon  him,  as  well  as  the  Church,  and  claims 
which  his  education  must  qualify  him  to  meet. 

But  all  this  amounts  to  saying  that  the  Priest  of  the 
Church  of  England  must  be  trained  for  other  than  cleri- 
cal service ;  and  the  result  of  this  is,  that  the  Clergy 
who  mean  to  be  faithful  in  their  vocation,  and  to  acquit 
themselves  in  all  its  duties  as  workmen  that  need  not 
be  ashamed,  must  learn  after  Ordination  what  they  ought 
to  have  learned  before  it.  They  must  be  apprentices 
while  they  wear  the  title  and  occupy  the  position  of 
masters.  Such  a  theory  could  hold  sway  for  any  length 
of  time  only  in  an  Established  Church ;  but  it  will  not 
do  so  much  longer  even  there.  "With  the  rising  life  and 
energy  of  the  Church  of  England,  her  foremost  minds, 
her  real  leaders,  are  becoming  more  and  more  impatient 
of  the  glaring  deficiencies  of  such  a  system;  and  the 
last  twenty  years  have  witnessed  some  very  determined 
efforts  to  modify  it. 

The  Roman-Catholic  method  is  in  all  respects  the 
exact  opposite  to  the  Anglican.  It  sets  out  with  a  radi- 
cally different  aim,  and  adheres  to  it  rigidly  to  the  very 
end.     The  preliminary  training  of  the  Romish  Clergy 


258        Material  and  Training  for'  the  Ministry. 

allows  no  side-issues,  and  is  encumbered  with  no  mixed 
purposes.  It  pays  no  heed  to  matters  of  social  status 
and  political  citizenship.  It  bears"  steadily  and  continu- 
ously on  the  strictly  professional  work  to  be  done.  It 
cares  for  nothing  that  does  not  help  to  inspire  its  sub- 
jects with  a  supreme  and  absolute  devotion  to  the 
Church.  It  handles  them,  from  beginning  to  end,  as 
material  to  be  shaped  into  tools,  not  to  be  developed  into 
men  of  breadth  and  self-poise.  Its  conception  of  the 
Priesthood  is  that  of  an  army,  every  soldier  of  which  is 
educated  into  the  habit  of  unquestioning  submission  to 
the  will  of  his  commander ;  or  that  of  a  hierarchical 
caste,  fenced  in  by  a  celibate  life,  and  isolated  as  much 
as  possible  from  all  contact  with  men  and  things  which 
does  not  serve  to  increase  its  power  over  the  world 
around  it.  The  Priests  of  the  Church  of  Rome,  in 
nearly  all  countries  where  it  holds  sway,  are  chosen  from 
the  humbler  classes.  They  are  singled  out  for  the  holy 
office  while  mere  boys.  They  are  under  the  Church's 
eye  from  the  start.  They  undergo  a  long  and  severe 
course  of  training  in  schools  and  colleges  and  seminaries 
of  theology,  and  special  care  is  bestowed  upon  them  at 
the  time  of  their  Ordination.  The  results  of  this  con- 
ception of  the  priestly  character  and  work,  and  of  the 
training  devised  to  put  it  in  force,  are  too  familiar  to 
require  comment. 

Our  method  of  clerical  education  is  neither  so  loose 
as  the  Anglican,  nor  so  rigid  as  the  Romish.  It  is  more 
strictly  ecclesiastical  than  the  former,  and  less  so  than 
the  latter.  The  special  duties  of  the  office  are  kept 
constantly  in  view,  and  yet  a  knowledge  of  men  and 


Material  and  Training  for  the  Ministry.        259 

things  is  recognized  as  necessary.  The  training  is  secu- 
lar in  the  college,  and  professional  after  candidateship 
begins.  It  aims  to  combine  the  scholarly  with  the  prac- 
tical, devotion  to  the  Church  with  a  healthy  interest  in 
general  affairs.  It  seeks  to  foster  the  esprit  de  corps, 
or  class  attachments,  which  give  to  the  sacred  profession 
a  certain  necessary  power  of  corporate  cohesion,  without 
neglecting  any  true  characteristic  of  a  large-hearted, 
sound,  and  sympathetic  manhood.  Our  type  of  the 
Priesthood  is  in  most  regards  the  outgrowth  of  our  cir- 
cumstances. In  the  nature  of  the  case  we  might  expect 
that  it  would,  as  it  does,  come  short  of  the  Anglican  in 
breadth  of  general  culture,  and  of  the  Koman  in  inten- 
sity of  purpose  and  thoroughness  of  drill.  We  could  not, 
if  we  would,  reproduce  the  ideal  Anglican  or  Roman 
Priest :  our  work  could  not  be  done  or  our  ecclesiastical 
system  be  administered  by  either.  And  yet  there  is  one 
respect,  to  name  no  others,  in  which  our  training,  and 
the  type  of  ministerial  character  which  it  creates,  might 
be  improved.  We  may  not  think  it  wise  to  imitate  the 
peculiar  devotion  of  the  Roman-Catholic  Priest  to  his 
Chiu-ch  or  to  his  Order.  We  may  condemn  this  type 
of  Priesthood  for  its  hard  and  narrow  ecclesiasticism. 
We  may  say  that  it  lacks  freedom  and  feiTor,  that  it 
has  in  it  the  lurking  antipathy  and  selfishness  which 
external  pruning  and  compression  always  leave  behind 
them,  that  it  is  largely  nurtured  by  caste  feeling  and 
caste  interests,  and  therefore  that  it  cannot  be  really 
noble  in  spmt  or  truly  great  in  any  of  its  manifestations. 
Still  it  is  capable  of  producing  what  to  the  common  eye 
appear  to  be  the  fruits  of  self-sacrifice,  the  tokens  of  a 


260        Material  and  Training  for  the  Ministry. 

frame  of  mind  which  can  rise  above  personal  ease  and 
self-indulgence,  which  can  obey  in  spite  of  hardship  and 
denial,  and  march  steadily  on  in  the  discharge  of  duty, 
caring  neither  for  the  world's  praise  or  blame.  Account 
for  the  qualities  as  we  may,  strip  them  of  merit  as  far 
as  the  most  hostile  criticism  may  demand,  there  is  yet 
left  in  the  best  specimens  of  the  Romish  Priest  a  certain 
intensity  and  directness  of  purpose,  a  sustained,  habitual 
indifference  to  the  minor  accidents  of  life,  which  de- 
serves, and  ordinarily  wins,  the  respect  if  not  admiration 
of  impartial  observers. 

Now,  it  would  be  well  if  we  could  infuse  into  our 
young  men  preparing  for  Holy  Orders  more  of  these 
qualities ;  enough  of  them,  at  the  least,  to  lead  them 
to  dwell  less  on  what  this  ease-loving,  pleasure -hunting 
generation  has  come  to  regard  as  the  hardships  and 
privations  of  the  Ministry,  and  more  upon  the  intrinsic 
greatness  of  the  work  to  be  done,  more  upon  the  in- 
comparable dignity  of  their  sacred  vocation,  more  upon 
the  value  of  souls  to  be  saved,  more  upon  the  Church 
they  serve,  more  upon  God's  grace  in  choosing  them 
out  of  the  world  to  be  the  vessels  of  so  glorious  a 
treasure  as  the  Gospel  of  His  Eternal  Son.  Too  many 
of  our  candidates  enter  the  Ministry  with  such  low  views 
of  its  morale  as  to  make  it  seem  to  them  quite  consistent 
with  the  solemn  purpose  which  they  profess  of  entire 
consecration  to  their  work,  to  forecast,  not  only  in  day- 
dreams and  visions,  but  by  definite,  preliminary  engage- 
ments, the  comforts  of  wives  and  homes,  of  quiet  studies 
and  attractive  pastoral  surroundings.  So  far  has  this 
gone,  that  it  is  no  unusual  thing  for  the  candidate  to 


Material  and  Training  for  the  Ministry.        261 

arrange  simultaneously  for  his  wedding  and  his  Ordina- 
tion, and  occasionally  to  take  a  wife  before  he  takes  duty 
in  the  Church.  We  get  little  enough  out  of  the  Diacon- 
ate  in  its  best  estate ;  but  in  many  cases  the  Church  gets 
next  to  nothing  out  of  it,  because  of  the  rash  and  un- 
seemly haste  to  snatch  the  joys  of  matrimony,  at  4;he 
expense  of  the  Church's  just  claims  and  expectations. 
In  all  such  cases,  the  fault  and  the  trouble  arise  from 
the  fact,  that,  while  a  candidate,  the  Deacon  fell  into  the 
habit  of  thinking  too  much  of  what  concerned  his  own 
comfort,  and  too  little  of  what  he  would  owe  to  the 
Church,  and  to  Christ  her  adorable  Head,  after  taking 
the  vows  and  receiving  the  gift  of  Ordination. 

There  is  a  purer  and  loftier  atmosphere  of  thought 
and  feeling  on  this  whole  subject  than  most  of  our 
young  life  in  training  for  the  Ministry  has  attained; 
and  yet,  up  to  which  it  must  be  lifted  if  the  Ministry 
is  to  recover  the  ground  it  has  lost,  or  to  extend  that 
which  it  still  holds.  I  advocate  no  special  enthusiasm. 
I  would  portray  as  the  needful  thing  no  spasmodic 
exaltation  of  soul,  possible  only  to  the  few.  There  are 
cant  phrases,  coined  by  minds  in  the  white  heat  of  re- 
ligious frenzy,  which  I  have  no  wish  to  repeat.  And 
yet  there  are  views  relating  to  this  aspect  of  the  Chris- 
tian Ministry,  which  ought  to  be  made  more  of  than  they 
have  been.  If  there  be  danger  in  feeding  a  false  fervor, 
there  is  much  greater  danger  in  having  no  fervor  at  all. 
The  tendency  is  very  strong,  just  now,  to  treat  the  Min- 
istry as  one  of  the  professions  to  some  one  or  the  other 
of  which  liberally  trained  young  men  will  naturally  turn. 
From  this  standpoint  its  prospects  are  discussed,  and  its 


262        Material  and  Training  for  the  Ministry. 

liabilities  estimated.  They  are  set  down  as  needlessly 
exacting,  who  refuse  to  pause  in  the  search  for  motives, 
until  they  have  touched  the  tests  uniformly  pressed  in 
Holy  Scripture  whenever  it  speaks  of  those  fit  to  be 
called  the  Pastors  and  Prophets  of  Jesus  Christ.  There 
are  times  and  occasions  on  which  we  may  be  practical 
and  business-like  in  speaking  of  the  Ministry,  without 
being  selfish  or  worldly.  It  is  entitled  to  consideration  in 
various  ways,  from  the  laity,  which  we  may  justly  demand. 
It  is  a  vocation  whose  sacredness  and  elevation  do  not 
relieve  it  of  the  necessity  of  competent  support,  and 
circumstances  may  render  it  needful  to  urge  this  fact 
upon  those  whose  duty  it  is  to  attend  to  it.  It  has  rights 
and  franchises  in  law  and  custom,  which  no  fear  of  mix- 
ing in  temporal  matters  should  prevent  us  from  asserting 
when  they  are  denied,  or  defending  when  they  are  as- 
sailed. There  may  be  a  lawful  readiness  to  exchange  a 
worse  for  a  better  position.  There  may  be  an  honorable 
and  legitimate  desire  to  rise  in  professional  influence,  as 
well  as  to  advance  in  professional  usefulness.  All  this 
is  consistent  with  the  noblest  ideal  of  the  Ministry. 
But  it  is  easily  overdone,  and  allowed  to  run  over  into 
.a  pronounced  worldliness,  which  drops  blight  and  mil- 
dew on  the  character  and  work  of  the  Priest  of  God. 
Enough  of  human  nature  is  carried  into  the  Ministry  to 
make  it  certain  that  this  side  of  it  will  never  be  for- 
gotten. Would  that  it  could  be  said  that  enough  of 
Ood's  grace,  enough  of  the  mind  that  was  in  Christ 
Jesus,  is  carried  into  it  to  make  it  equally  sure  that  the 
other  side  will  always  be  remembered  ! 

Too  generally  we  have  fallen  into  the  unhappy  way 


Material  and  Training  for  the  Ministry.        263 

of  dwelling  too  much  on  the  minor  trials  and  accidental 
annoyances  of  the  Ministry,  and  too  little  on  its  real 
burdens  and  tribulations.  A  well-meant  but  unfortunate 
sentimentalism  has  given  to  the  former  too  large  a  place 
in  the  attention  of  candidates,  while  an  undue  fear  of 
discouraging  those  who  might  be  thinking  of  the  Minis- 
try has  tempted  us  to  make  less  of  the  latter  than  truth 
really  demands.  It  is  time  this  were  all  changed.  The 
great  question  now  is,  not  how  much  but  what  sort  of 
material  is  to  be  put  under  training.  Numbers,  if  they 
be  of  the  wrong  sort,  will  only  still  further  weaken  and 
demoralize  us.  The  Church  wants  no  one  in  her  Min- 
istry who  will  be  likely  to  turn  back  when  confronted 
by  a  full  knowledge  of  what  is  in  store  for  the  faithful 
deputy  of  Christ.  Let  it  be  declared,  then,  over  and 
over,  and  let  it  be  understood,  that  in  a  true  Priesthood 
heavy  toil,  wasting  care,  constant  self-sacrifice,  saddening 
disappointments,  and  often  the  uncomfortable  straits  of 
poverty,  are  inevitable.  Let  it  be  known  that  he  who 
takes  up  the  work  must  take  up  the  burden;  that  he 
who  accepts  the  Master's  service  must  accept  the  enmity 
and  reproach  visited  upon  Him.  Burden-bearing,  self- 
denials,  strivings,  hardships  of  every  name,  are  insepara- 
ble from  the  task  of  converting  the  world  to  God ;  and 
they  were  meant  to  be  so.  To  shun  them  is  to  shun 
the  Cross  we  preach.  These  things  are  the  glory  and 
crown  of  the  Ministry.  Its  elevation,  its  honor,  its  joy, 
its  strength,  is  in  its  union  with  Christ,  and  participation 
in  what  He  was  called  to  endure.  It  is  a  wanton  and 
wicked  profanation  of  the  Sacred  Office,  to  even  think 
of  it  as  the  avenue  to  worldly  honor  and  personal  ease. 


264        Material  and  Training  for  the  Ministry. 

Granted  that  the  heralds  of  Christ  are  often  poor,  over- 
weighted, neglected,  despised;  granted  that  they  are 
often  in  conflict,  often  in  peril,  —  was  it  not  so  with 
Himself?  It  is  enough  for  the  disciple  that  he  be  as 
his  Master,  and  the  servant  as  his  Lord.  The  cause  is 
too  great,  the  blessings  to  be  conferred  too  inestimable, 
the  ultimate  reward  too  glorious,  the  present  commission 
to  go  forth  and  sow  beside  all  waters  too  divine,  to  per- 
mit any  such  drawbacks  to  palsy  the  wills  and  hearts 
of  those  whom  the  Holy  Ghost  draws  to  the  standard  of 
the  Lord  of  lords  and  King  of  kings.  The  stuff  out 
of  which  confessors  and  heroes  and  martyrs  are  made  is 
not  worn  out,  nor  is  the  mould  in  which  it  may  be  cast 
into  these  grander  forms  of  Christian  service  broken. 
Both  are  with  us,  but  they  c&n  be  found  only  by  the 
electric  touch  of  a  soul  in  the  Church  as  great  and 
unselfish  as  that  which  dwells  in  its  heavenly  Head. 
Once  restore  to  the  Ministry  the  prestige  and  power  of 
such  sentiments,  and  there  will  be  no  more  speculations 
and  inquiries  about  the  decline  of  its  influence,  or 
assertions  of  its  inferiority  to  other  agencies  thrown  to 
the  front  by  modern  life. 


LECTURE   VII. 


PREACHING. 


Though  it  may  be  shown  that  the  influence  of  preach- 
ing has  not  really  declined,  it  wiU  hardly  be  asserted 
that  a  just  criticism  will  not  find  in  it  much  that  needs 
amendment.  When  we  consider  the  sort  of  truth  com- 
mitted to  it,  the  promises  by  which  it  is  upheld,  the 
Divine  gifts  with  which  it  is  endowed,  and  the  sublime 
purpose  it  was  ordained  to  accomplish,  we  must  admit 
that  it  is  far  below  its  proper  ideal,  and  that  a  more 
thorough  discipline  would  disencumber  it  of  not  a  few 
side-weights  that  now  hinder  its  power.  It  is  not  in- 
tended to  repeat  what  has  been  more  or  less  well  said 
by  writers  on  homiletics,  from  Guibert  de  Nogent  and 
Humbert  de  Romanis,  the  foremost  mediaeval  authori- 
ties, down  to  those  of  our  own  time.  To  do  so  would 
be  quite  foreign  to  the  object  of  the  present  inquh'y. 
Nothing  more  will  be  attempted  than  to  point  out  such 
actual  faults  and  harmful  tendencies  in  our  preaching 
as  mar  its  present  and  seriously  threaten  its  future 
influence. 

1.  The  pulpit  is  thought  by  many  to  exhibit  an  un- 
due craving  for  popularity.  Popularity  is  not  always  an 
evil  or  a  danger,  though  on  some  sides  of  our  life  it  has 


266  Preaching. 

figured  of  late  as  any  thing  but  a  boon.  Whatever  it 
be,  it  is  the  idol  of  individuals,  parties,  and  communities. 
Enthroned  by  our  social  and  political  training,  it  holds 
powerful  sway  in  the  domain  of  religion.  It  would  be 
uncharitable  to  charge  the  pulpit  with  consciously  and 
openly  courting  such  a  fickle  divinity.  The  road  that 
leads  toward  it  is  ingeniously  and  piously  prepared.  A 
famous  help  to  this  is  the  Apostle's  example  of  becoming 
"  all  things  to  all  men,"  when  freely  rendered.  Still  an- 
other help  is  the  wide-spread,  often  well-meant,  demand 
for  further  adaptations  of  the  Church's  ministrations  to 
the  wants  of  the  people.  There  is  no  end  to  the  dis- 
coursing on  what  are  esteemed  to  be  the  unprecedented 
needs  of  these  times.  It  is  insisted  that  the  modes  of 
dealing  with  them  must  be  quite  as  extraordinai'y  as 
the  needs  themselves.  The  customary  tools  in  the  past 
wiU  not  answer  in  these  fresh  mines.  The  old  salt  has 
so  far  lost  its  savor,  that  its  virtue  must  be  restored  by 
the  inventions  of  our  modern  chemistry.  And  then, 
lest  the  Church  should  be  dull  of  apprehension,  she  is 
reminded  of  the  stiffness  and  blindness  which  have  dam- 
aged her  prestige  at  sundry  times  in  the  past.  Puritan 
secessions  in  the  seventeenth  and  Methodist  outbreaks  in 
the  eighteenth  century  are  recalled,  to  frighten  her  into  a 
more  flexible  compliance  with  the  alleged  requirements 
of  the  age.  Practically  the  voice  of  the  people  is  held 
to  be  omnipotent,  as  well  in  the  Church  as  in  the  State. 
It  may  be  full  of  passion,  prejudice,  and  ignorance;  but, 
with  whatever  hesitation,  it  is  in  the  end  obeyed.  To 
an  extent  greater  than  is  supposed,  it  moulds  the  style 
and  dictates  the  topics  of  the  pulpit;  with  too  little  re- 


Preaching.  267 

gard  for  the  fact  that  the  Gospel  was  sent,  not  to  gratify, 
but  to  reform,  human  nature.  Without  question  it  is 
the  common  opinion,  that  the  Church  must  conform  her 
ways,  more  than  she  has  yet  done,  to  the  popular  taste, 
or  the  places  that  have  known  her  will  know  her  no 
more.  Now.  to  this  view  in  its  extreme  form  may  be 
traced  not  a  few  of  the  worst  characteristics  of  much 
of  the  preaching  of  the  day. 

Our  generation  is  inflated  and  self-asserting.  It  has 
done  a  great  deal,  and  it  means  that  all  the  posterities 
shall  know  it.  The  silence  of  reserved  force,  the  mod- 
esty of  balanced  power,  the  humility  of  true  greatness, 
are  alien  to  its  spirit.  This  restless,  feverish  life  sur- 
ging by  us  is  itself  a  stupendous  sensation,  and  will  so 
appear  in  history.  The  pulpit  has  sucked  in  the  in- 
fection, and  unconsciously  reproduces  it  in  the  familiar 
and  abnormal  development  known  in  our  vocabulary  as 
"  sensationalism."  It  needs  no  analysis  or  description  : 
to  name  it  is  to  suggest  a  thousand  monstrous  possibili- 
ties of  thought,  speech,  and  manner. 

The  age,  intellectually  considered,  has  far  more  sur- 
face than  depth.  It  is  many-sided,  but  disinclined  to 
thorough  work.  It  does  not  believe  in  hidden  treasures 
of  learning  and  wisdom :  what  it  owns,  it  wears  as  part 
of  its  every-day  attire.  Spiritually  it  will  not  bear  what 
Master  Ridley  called  "  deep  spading,"  nor,  farther  on, 
what  honest  Latimer  called  "  weeding,"  for  the  sake  of 
a  better  crop.  Much  of  our  preaching  is  of  the  same 
stamp.  It  is  not  cumbered  with  any  extra  weight  of 
learning  or  of  logic.  To  be  very  deep  or  very  elaborate, 
to  draw  out  the    more   hidden  juices    of  theology,  to 


268  Preaching. 

import  into  a  sermon  the  terms  in  which  the  severer 
and  more  precise  thought  of  the  most  thoughtful  of  the 
Christian  centuries  took  shape,  —  to  presume  upon  any 
sustained  active  attention  on  the  part  of  the  hearers  to 
matter  of  this  sort  is  to  scatter  them.  The  preacher 
who  makes  a  conscience  of  putting  into  his  sermon 
the  study  and  culture  of  a  ripe  and  disciplined  mind  is 
often  no  match  for  the  washy,  flashy  extemporizer  who 
makes  up  in  wind  what  he  lacks  in  sense.  He  who 
would  preach  to  a  crowd  must  not  crowd  his  preach- 
ing with  what  our  common-school  training  would  style 
fossilized  learning.  Strong  men,  indeed,  here  and  there 
hold  the  multitude ;  but  in  too  many  cases  they  do  it 
by  cheapening,  in  some  way,  their  manner  or  their 
matter. 

2.  Again :  this  age  is  largely  given  to  adulterations 
of  every  sort.  Its  food  and  drink,  its  clothing  and  fur- 
nishing, its  literature,  its  politics,  its  legislation,  and 
even  its  justice,  are  very  much  mixed  with  alien  ele- 
ments. Trade-marks  and  guaranties  are  no  protection. 
What  wonder  that  religion,  regarded  as  a  thing  of  and 
for  the  people,  and  as  bound  to  be  in  all  ways  accom- 
modating to  the  prevailing  customs,  should  be  more  or 
less  adulterated  also'?  What  wonder  that  the  most  de- 
monstrative organ  of  religion,  the  pulpit,  should  have 
its  mixture  of  truth  and  heresy,  of  unity  and  schism,  of 
godliness  and  worldliness,  of  high-toned  theory  and  low- 
toned  practice,  of  independence  and  servility,  meekness 
and  vanity^  To  keep  any  thing  in  religion  as  God 
made  it,  is  to  be  exclusive.  To  maintain  the  truth 
sharply  and  firmly  in  its  puiity,  and  as  God  gave  it,  is  to 


Preaching.  269 

be  morbidly  sensitive  to  petty  distin(5tions,  and  to  forget 
"  the  infinite  breadth  of  the  Divine  Mind." 

3.  As  might  be  expected  from  the  traits  already 
mentioned,  our  time  is  keenly  alive  to  the  charm  of 
originality.  Apparently  it  would  sacrifice  almost  any 
thing,  rather  than  be  thought  lacking  in  this.  It  may 
be  originality  of  a  cheap  and  thin  sort, — originality  in 
confounding  evil  with  good,  or  even  in  inventing  new 
forms  of  wickedness,  as  well  as  new  forms  of  power  and 
wealth  and  beneficence.  Its  capital  in  hand  is  an  in- 
heritance. The  ideas  and  forces,  the  laws  and  insti- 
tutions, the  controlling  impulses  in  art,  letters,  politics, 
and  religion,  are  in  the  main  a  legacy  from  the  past. 
Though  constantly  denying  it,  no  generation,  no  coun- 
try, was  ever  more  thoroughly  dominated  by  traditional 
influences.  The  solidarity  of  the  centuries,  the  unity 
of  the  race,  and  the  continuity  of  the  work  laid  upon  it, 
compel  a  strong  family  likeness  among  all  the  historic 
ages.  Still  this  age  has  views  and  tests  of  progress, 
has  modes  of  working  out  results,  and  of  doing  things 
generally,  which  are  peculiar  to  itself,  and  which  it  is 
no  stretch  of  language  to  characterize  as  original. 
Whatever  the  grounds  on  which  it  rests,  there  is  no 
doubt  of  its  claim  to  this  quality,  or  of  its  noisy  pride 
in  pushing  the  claim.  Now,  very  naturally  much  of  our 
most  admired  preaching  takes  tone  and  manner  from 
this  feeling.  Few  preachers  can  hope  to  be  really 
original,  but  many  can  put  on  the  semblance  of  it. 
There  is  a  certain  petty  cleverness  of  thought  and 
speech,  not  unattainable  by  most  men  who  are  willing 
to  work  for  it,  which  with  the  multitude  passes  for  the 


270  Preaching. 

freshness  and  vivacity  of  genius.  It  is  a  poor  counter- 
feit, but  it  is  none  the  less  harmful.  It  makes  the 
preacher  self-conscious  and  vain ;  it  enfeebles  his  sense 
of  obligation  to  the  truth  as  God  gave  it ;  it  fills  him 
with  a  low  ambition  for  striking  but  transient  effects ; 
and  nothing  is  surer  than  that  the  pulpit  which  habitu- 
ally courts  it  will  decline  in  all  the  nobler  sources  and 
attributes  of  power.  This  spurious  imitation  of  origi- 
nality has  been  overdone.  Symptoms  are  not  wanting 
to  show  that  all  the  magic-lantern  tricks  of  mere  rheto- 
ricians will  ere  long  be  rated  at  their  real  worth. 

4.  Again :  our  time  is  spectacular.  It  is  fond  of 
shows.  It  loves  to  see  its  own  life  reproduced  in  dra- 
matic form.  It  is  charmed  with  living  exhibitions  and 
literary  portraitures  of  its  own  ideas  and  habits,  its 
own  faults  and  virtues.  Amid  all  its  "  Philistinism,"  it 
has  much  of  the  old  Athenian  craving  in  this  direc- 
tion. Now,  there  is  much  in  our  religion,  much  in  the 
Church's  tone  and  ways,  that  readily  sympathizes  with 
this  tendency.  The  life  of  our  Lord  was  essentially  a 
drama,  for  it  was  Godhead  in  action  visibly  before  the 
world.  The  Church's  history  has  been  one  continuous 
drama  from  the  beginning;  for,  among  other  things  it 
was  to  do,  it  was  to  show  forth,  by  a  perpetual  and  sol- 
emn Sacrament,  the  Lord's  death  until  He  come  again. 
Certainly  the  Ritual  and  Calendar  of  the  Church  have  a 
large  dramatic  element.  They  recite  the  past  as  though 
it  were  now  happening,  or  were  yet  to  come.  They  make 
the  hidden  visible,  the  absent  near,  the  ancient  new. 
Their  office  is  that  of  an  ever-recurring  rehearsal  of 
what  has  been  and  of  what  shall  be.    The  highest  order 


Preaching.  271 

of  preaching  cannot  be  reached  without  this  element. 
Accordingly  it  has  been  the  aim  of  most  of  the  truly 
great  preachers  in  the  past,  to  enforce  the  truths  they 
delivered,  not  only  with  clearness  of  argument  and  ful- 
ness of  learning  and  felicity  of  illustration,  but  also  and 
eminently  with  a  certain  dramatic  vividness  which  should 
cause  them  to  live  on  the  eye  and  the  ear.  Right  and 
desirable  in  itself,  there  are  some  signs  in  the  modem 
pulpit  which  admonish  us  to  guard  against  its  running 
into  extravagance  and  eccentricity.  Those  who  need 
this  caution  most  are  unfortunately  just  those  who  grow 
up  and  work  under  ecclesiastical  systems  which  deprive 
them  of  the  wise  and  moderated  guidance  of  the  Church's 
worship  and  Christian  year.  Our  own  Clergy  are  safe 
enough  from  any  extreme  of  this  sort:  their  fault  is, 
that  they  do  not  infuse  into  their  ministrations  more  of 
the  dramatic  animation  and  freshness  with  which  the 
Church's  mode  of  handling  the  events  and  teachings  of 
Christianity  so  richly  abounds. 

5.  Our  time,  not  only  in  spite,  but  perhaps  as  a 
consequence,  of  its  busy,  prosaic  life,  has  a  marked  turn 
for  humor.  It  has  an  almost  childish  fondness  for 
amusement ;  so  much  of  it,  indeed,  as  to  render  it  care- 
less of  what  it  gets  in  this  way.  The  fun  may  be  rude 
or  refined,  select  or  vulgar,  highly  moral  or  dubiously 
so :  it  is  all  the  same.  The  supreme  want,  in  many  cir- 
cles, is  something  to  laugh  at.  If  that  something  can 
be  had  in  connection  with  sacred  acts  and  sacred  places 
and  sacred  persons,  it  is  all  the  more  highly  esteemed, 
because  the  incongruity  of  the  association  gives  a  keen- 
er relish  at  once  to  the  enjoyment  and  to  the  occasion 


272  Preaching. 

of  it.  No  one  will  be  so  stupid  as  to  question  that  real 
liumor  is  a  good  thing  in  its  place,  or  that  it  deserves 
well  of  all  who  know  how  to  appreciate  the  sunny  side 
of  human  nature.  The  only  point  here  raised  is  its  use 
in  the  pulpit.  To  exclude  it  altogether,  or  to  denounce 
it  as,  under  all  circumstances,  an  impertinence,  would 
be  to  bar  out  from  the  preacher's  function  not  a  few 
most  gifted  minds.  There  is  now  and  then  a  mind  of 
rich  endowment  and  exuberant  spirit,  that  can  scarcely 
move  in  the  world  of  ideas  or  among  the  facts  of  Ufe 
without  evolving  flashes  of  humor,  and  doing  it  as  natu- 
rally and  inevitably  as  the  steel,  clashing  with  the  flint, 
drops  sparks  of  fire.  Such  a  mind  may  be  exposed  to 
peculiar  risks  and  temptations  in  the  pulpit,  but  it  is  not 
to  be  silenced  or  expelled  because  of  this  liability.  We 
know  that  some  preachers  who  did  a  noble  work  in  their 
day  did  not  hesitate  to  employ  any  means,  whether  ludi- 
crous or  serious,  to  arouse  the  sluggish  attention  of  their 
auditors.  "  In  all  countries  and  in  all  ages,"  as  has 
been  remarked  by  an  eminent  authority,  "the  most  cele- 
brated popular  preachers  have  felt  a  tendency  to  excite 
laughter  in  its  turn,  as  well  as  other  emotions."  Still, 
in  an  age  and  among  a  people  so  given  to  levity  and 
irreverence  as  ours,  it  must  be  admitted  that  this  faculty 
of  humor  is  a  very  dangerous  one  in  the  pulpit,  very 
easy  to  abuse,  and  very  likely  to  off'end  most  minds  of 
churchly  training  and  sentiment.  Two  things  may 
wisely  be  said  of  it :  those  who  have  the  gift  should  be 
cautious  how  they  use  it,  and  those  who  have  it  not 
should  beware  of  attempting  lame  and  insipid  counter- 
feits of  it. 


Preaching,  273 

Much  is  said  about  the  declining  interest  in  preach- 
ing; and  many  reasons  are  given  to  account  for  it, 
such  as  the  loss  of  novelty  in  the  matter,  the  higher 
education  and  wider  information  of  the  people,  the 
weakened  sense  of  the  claims  of  the  moral  law  and 
generally  of  the  reality  and  importance  of  the  truths 
dealt  with,  the  complacent  self-satisfaction  of  modern 
life,  the  multiplication  of  topics  of  intellectual  interest 
outside  the  sphere  of  the  pulpit.  But  these  things,  so 
far  as  they  are  true,  should  only  drive  the  preacher 
back  to  what  still  remains  to  him  the  source  of  highest 
power  in  this  and  every  age ;  viz.,  his  ethical  relation  to 
the  people.  Next  to  proclaiming  the  truth,  his  chief 
duty  growing  out  of  this  relation  is  to  do  so  with  the 
intense  fervor  of  personal  conviction ;  arousing  the  heart 
and  the  conscience  to  the  message  he  delivers,  by  cloth- 
ing it  with  a  living  fire  drawn  from  his  own  soul.  To 
this  sort  of  power,  no  congregation  is  indifferent ;  and 
perhaps  it  is  the  only  sort  of  power,  normal  to  the  pul- 
pit, that  no  widening  of  popular  knowledge,  no  eleva- 
tion of  mental  tone  produced  by  advancing  culture,  no 
change  in  the  conditions  of  social  life  or  other  cause, 
can  diminish  or  nullify.  Clearly,  then,  the  more  our 
preaching  is  shut  up  to  the  exercise  of  this  power,  the 
more  it  should  study  how  to  find  it,  and,  when  found, 
how  to  use  it.  As  life  grows  more  settled  and  com- 
posed, and  inclines  to  the  well-worn  grooves  of  custom, 
the  preacher  is  apt  to  fall  off  in  this  quality.  He  so 
much  dreads  the  risk  of  running  into  or  of  being 
charged  with  fanaticism,  that  he  quenches,  little  by 
little,  the  healthy  heat  of  a  decent  enthusiasm.     And 


274  Preaching. 

yet  sucli  regulated  fervor  is  essential  to  the  ordained 
teacher  of  the  duties  of  life.  For  the  truth  he  preaches 
is  only  duty  in  solution ;  the  moral  order  he  expounds  is 
only  another  name  for  God  in  Christ,  in  contact  with 
the  individual  will,  and  supplying  to  it,  in  its  vacillation 
and  weakness,  the  spiritual  dynamic  which  it  cannot 
find  in  itself.  Thus  the  highest  task  of  the  preacher  is 
to  translate  universal  truth  into  specific  personal  obliga- 
tions ;  and  this  he  can  do  successfully  only  by  the  ardor 
of  his  own  conviction  and  experience,  and  by  the  burn- 
ing energy  of  his  own  speech.  Here  is  a  hold  upon  the 
common  mind,  that  nothing  can  shake.  There  is  always 
intrinsic  strength,  as  well  as  popular  interest,  in  per- 
sonal earnestness ;  and  the  more  the  pulpit  has  of  it, 
the  greater  will  be  its  attraction,  especially  in  times  of 
arrested  faith,  or  positive  doubt,  or  dogmatic  indiffer- 
ence. The  very  influences  that  tend  to  destroy  earnest- 
ness of  conviction  among  the  masses  will  tend,  at  the 
same  time,  to  render  them  more  sensitive  to  its  power 
when  wielded  apart  from  doctrinal  differences  and  dis- 
sents, and  exclusively  in  the  spheres  of  moral  duty  and 
spiritual  aspiration. 

I  proceed  now  to  notice  another  fault  in  much  of  our 
preaching,  which  deserves  to  be  sharply  criticised,  and 
which,  strangely  enough,  attracts  less  attention  than  it 
ought  in  quarters  where  it  might  be  expected  that  no 
effort  would  be  spared  to  cure  it.  I  refer  to  w^hat  most 
careful  observers  regard  as  the  lame,  weak,  and  barren 
use  of  the  Holy  Scriptures.  That  person  must  have 
been  very  blind  or  very  careless  who  has  failed  to  notice 
this  defect.     I  speak  of  what  is  common,  not  universal. 


Preaching.  275 

There  are  exceptions,  but  they  are  all  the  more  remark- 
able because  they  are  so.  If  the  Church's  large  experi- 
ence touching  the  temptations  which  have  corrupted  the 
taste  and  warped  the  judgment  of  her  preachers,  in  one 
way  or  another,  in  ages  gone  by,  did  not  prepare  us  for 
it,  we  might  deem  this  fault  of  all  others  the  most  un- 
accountable. With  so  many  things  to  bind  the  preacher 
to  the  Scriptures,  how,  we  are  ready  to  ask,  could  he 
ever  fall  away  from  them?  What  is  the  ministry  of 
the  Word,  apart  from  the  Word  as  its  own  food,  as  well 
as  the  food  of  the  flock  ?  Preaching  as  Christ  ordained 
it,  and  as  alone  God  has  promised  to  bless  it,  ist  he 
public  explanation  of  His  Word,  and  its  application  to 
the  people's  use.  The  terms  of  its  original  commission 
distinctly  prescribe  its  subject-matter  to  be  "  all  things 
whatsoever  I  have  commanded  you."^  The  Apostles 
and  their  successors  were  to  preach  nothing  else  than 
that  which  they  had  themselves  received.  St.  Paul  ex- 
pressly declared,  "  I  delivered  unto  you  that  which  I  also 
received  ; "  ^  and  warned  all  whom  he  taught,  not  to  listen 
to  himself  or  any  other  teacher  who  might  go  beyond 
these  limits.  He  charged  Timothy^  as  an  Apostle,  to 
"  keep  that  which  is  committed  to  thy  trust."  ^  "The 
things  that  thou  hast  heard  of  me  among  many  wit- 
nesses, the  same  commit  thou  to  faithful  men  who  shall 
be  able  to  teach  others  also."*  And  so  the  Church, 
catching  the  mind  and  purpose  of  our  Lord  and  His 
Apostles,  ordains  no  Priest  without  reminding  him  that 
his  "  doctrine  and  exhortation  must  be  taken  out  of  the 
Holy  Scriptures ;  "  how  "  studious  "  he  "  ought  to  be 
1  Matt,  xxviii.  20.      2  1  Cor.  xv.  3.      »  i  Tim.  vi.  20.      *  2  Tim.  ii.  2. 


276  Preaching. 

in  reading  and  learning  the  Scriptures  ;  "  and  how,  "  by 
daily  weighing  the  Scriptures,"  he  "may  wax  riper  and 
stronger  in  his  ministry  ; "  ^  nor  this  only,  but  demand- 
ing of  him  the  solemn  promise  that  he  will  be  "  dili- 
gent "  in  "  such  studies  as  help  to  the  knowledge  of  the 
same." 

Now,  express  as  Christ,  his  Apostles,  and  his  Church 
are  on  this  point,  yet  in  fact  the  Scriptures  have  been 
a  variable  quantity  to  the  Clergy  in  various  periods ; 
sometimes  their  sole  spiritual  diet,  sometimes  so  only  in 
part,  and  sometimes  scarcely  so  at  aU.  The  past  teaches 
one  lesson  on  preaching  to  which  there  is  no  exception. 
Always  and  everywhere  its  influence  has  been  gauged 
by  its  knowledge  and  use  of  the  Scriptures.  It  may  be 
impossible  to  give  the  average  of  clerical  studies  in 
God's  Word  in  our  own  day :  certainly,  if  judged  by  our 
preaching,  it  would  not  be  very  high.  The  old  power 
of  handling  the  Scriptures  with  striking  popular  eff'ect 
has  declined.  The  contrast  in  this  respect  between  the 
preachers  of  the  patristic  and  mediaeval  times,  and  those 
of  our  own  day,  is  remarkable.  The  Scriptural  knowl- 
edge of  the  former  was  immense  and  almost  intuitive. 
They  often  pushed  the  spiritual  and  figurative  method 
of  interpretation  too  far.  Sometimes  they  were  betrayed 
into  extremes  whose  absurdity  has  been  the  sport  of 
modern  critics.  Their  mysticism  may  have  been  ex- 
travagant, and  their  passion  for  detecting  fanciful  types 
and  analogies  may  have  degenerated  into  a  scholarly 
weakness  worthy  of  rebuke  and  even  of  ridicule..  But 
they  did  one  thing  which  gave  to  their  preaching  singu- 
1  Priest's  Ordinal. 


Preaching.  277 

lar  depth  and  freshness  and  power:    they  filled  eveiy 
nook  and  corner  of  the  Old  Testament  with  the  life  of 
the  New ;  they  found  the  spirit  and  beheld  the  glory  of 
Christ  in  a  thousand  places  where,  perhaps,  our  duller 
sense  fails  to  see  them.    Whatever  faults  may  be  charged 
to  them,  they  were  at  least   saved,  by  their   mode    of 
studying  the  Word,  from  the  spiritual  barrenness  caused 
by  that  wretched  invention  of  a  later  age,  —  the  hard 
and  harsh  canon  of  the  school  of  Calvin,  —  which  re- 
fused to  find  a  type  of  Christ  anywhere  except  where 
it  is  distinctly  pointed  out  in  the  New  Testament.     It 
was  one  consequence  of  their  method  of  interpretation, 
that  they  could  not  conceive  of  any  preaching  worthy 
of  the  name,  whose  warp  and  woof  were  not  spun  and 
woven  out  of  the  Word  of  God.     If  we  take  any  two 
standard  sermons,  the  one  of  the  early  and  the  other  of 
our  own  time,  we  shall  find  that  the  Scripture  quotations 
and  references  in  the  former  are  as  nearly  ten  to  one  in 
the  latter.     Those  old  preachers  difiered  from  modern 
ones  in  another  respect :  they  knew  nothing  of  the  fash- 
ion of  these  days  in  quoting  almost  exclusively  from  cer- 
tain books  or  chapters  of  Holy  Scripture,  which  happen 
to  be  deemed  most  important  by  the  reigning  schools 
in  Biblical   criticism   or   dogmatic   theology.      Equally 
imbued  with  the  spirit  of  all  parts,  and  citing  from  all 
parts  alike,  they  unconsciously  erected  the  surest  safe- 
guard against  openly  violating  or  ignorantly  wandering 
from  the  analogy  of  the  Word. 

Again :  how  weak  in  the  Scriptures  is  our  preaching, 
as  compared  with  that  of  the  divines  and  casuists  during 
and  subsequent  to  the  Reformation.     It  is  impossible  to 


278  Preaching. 

read  their  discourses  without  being  surprised  at  the  in- 
genuity, closeness,  and  insight  with  which  they  handled 
them.  They  had  to  be  deep  and  strong  in  the  Word, 
or  be  nothing.  Their  sharp  and  versatile  controversial 
training  did  for  them  what  the  mystical  style  of  thought 
did  for  the  ancient  and  mediaeval  divines:  it  obliged- 
them  to  cultivate  an  accuracy  and  fertility  of  Biblical 
knowledge  which  made  them  giants  in  dealing  with  the 
Word  of  God  and  with  the  consciences  of  men. 

Now,  the  reasons  for  the  decline  of  which  I  am 
speaking  are  neither  obscure  nor  remote.  The  times, 
it  is  said,  are  changed.  For  ages  the  Bible  was  a  sealed 
book  to  the  people.  When  read  in  public  seiTices,  it 
was  read  in  a  language  not  "  understanded "  of  the 
people.  What  little  they  knew  of  it,  they  were  obliged 
to  learn  from  their  preachers.  Thus  preaching  became 
almost  the  sole  vehicle  of  sacred  knowledge,  and  it  nat- 
urally made  the  most  of  what  rendered  it  most  attrac- 
tive and  popular.  But  now  the  Bible  is  in  everybody's 
hands,  or  may  be,  and  the  ability  to  read  it  is  universal. 
The  habit  of  drawing  from  it  so  largely,  as  was  once 
the  case,  has  passed  away  with  the  necessity  for  doing 
so.  The  preacher,  therefore,  it  is  claimed,  has  the  right 
to  presuppose  the  existence  of  considerable  Scripture 
knowledge  among  the  people,  and  to  address  them  ac- 
cordingly. This  may  explain  the  fact,  but  does  not  just- 
ify it.  The  preacher's  commission  binds  him  to  deliver 
a  message  equally  needed  in  all  times  and  places ;  and 
the  more  his  hearers  know  of  that  message,  the  greater 
his  power  to  drive  it  home,  and  the  greater  his  duty 
to  do  so.     But  the  wider  circulation  of  the  Scriptures, 


Preaching.  279 

and  their  translation  into  all  spoken  tongues,  have  not 
been  followed  by  a  corresponding  knowledge  of  them. 
It  is  a  great  mistake  to  think  otherwise.  The  blessing 
has  been  made  so  free  as  to  cheapen  it.  The  easier  it 
is  to  get  at  the  Scriptures,  the  less,  in  reality,  they  are 
used.  The  feeling  that  they  can  be  read  at  any  time, 
that  they  can  be  found  everywhere,  prevents  many 
people  from  reading  them  at  all.  Undeniably  there  is 
among  us  a  wide-spread  respect  for  the  Word,  and  of 
necessity  an  equally  wide-spread  ignorance  of  it.  Be- 
sides the  cause  above  named,  there  is  another,  operating 
in  the  same  direction  and  among  vast  numbers  of  peo- 
ple. It  has  crept  even  into  the  Church,  and  it  works 
there  with  a  force  as  secret  as  it  is  fatal.  I  refer  to  a 
latent  scepticism  as  to  the  authority  and  genuineness  of 
the  Holy  Scriptures,  engendered  by  the  modern  tone 
of  thought,  —  a  scepticism  which  paralyzes  faith  with- 
out killing  it ;  which  breeds  uiward  distrust  and  indif- 
ference while  maintaining  outward  reverence ;  which 
consists  w4th  a  certain  willingness  to  hear  the  Scriptures 
read  and  explained,  and  also  with  liberal  mental  reserva- 
tions as  to  their  truth.  As  a  rule,  this  temper  of  mind 
regards  with  distaste,  not  to  say  repugnance,  the  free 
use  of  the  Scriptures  in  preaching.  It  is  painful  and 
ominous  to  see  how  influential  over  the  pulpit  this  feel- 
ing is.  Good  and  earnest  and  orthodox  men  are  often 
swayed  by  it  more  than  they  are  aware,  or  would  like  to 
own.  Without  doubt,  that  preaching  is  commonly  re- 
garded as  most  in  accord  with  the  times,  and  most  likely 
to  be  rewarded  with  flattering  audiences,  which  humors 
it  most. 


280  Freaching. 

Again:  not  a  few  of  the  Clergy  have,  without  intending 
it,  fallen  off  in  the  close  and  habitual  study  of  the  Word 
which  characterized  the  beginning  of  their  Ministry,  and 
correspondingly  in  their  ability  to  handle  the  AVord  with 
a  sympathetic  interest  and  with  a  fair  degree  of  scholar- 
ship. So  wide  has  become  the  area  of  knowledge  over 
'which  a  man  of  culture  is  expected  to  travel,  that  only 
«pecialists  and  experts  can  hope  to  tarry  long  on  any 
one  portion  of  it.  But  a  Parish  Priest  who  hopes  to 
accomplish  much  among  his  people  cannot  afford  to  be 
ignorant  of  the  leading  branches  of  useful  knowledge,  or 
'Of  the  current  additions  to  the  standard  literature  of  the 
day.  Though  not  scientific,  he  must  know  something  of 
the  sciences.  Though  not  literary,  he  must  be  imbued 
with  the  spu'it,  and  acquainted  with  the  changing  fash- 
ions of  letters.  Though  not  a  profound  and  accurate 
theologian,  he  must  be  at  least  respectable  in  theological 
attainments.  But  whether  he  attain  to  all  these  or 
to  none,  there  is  one  thing  in  which  it  will  be  held 
unpardonable  for  him  to  fail,  and  that  is  knowledge  of 
human  nature,  —  tact  in  dealing  with  men,  capacity  for 
affairs,  aptness  for  making  the  most  out  of  a  little, 
whether  in  money,  or  brains,  or  religion,  or  ecclesiastical 
influence  and  attachment.  It  must  be  a  man  of  unusual 
Tesources,  who,  after  meeting  such  requirements,  can 
find  time  to  study  the  Scriptures  as  they  were  studied 
by  successful  preachers  in  the  great  historic  periods  of 
which  I  have  spoken.  The  most  the  busy  and  over- 
worked Clergyman  can  do  is  to  make  an  equitable  divis- 
ion of  his  time  among  the  claimants  on  his  attention. 
But  he  is  bound,  by  every  recollection  of  his  Ordination 


Preaching.  281 

vow,  to  give  the  first  and  highest  place  to  the  Word  of 
God.  It  may  be  inexpedient  that  any  of  them  should 
be  neglected,  but  this  is  the  only  one  that  cannot  be 
neglected  without  sin. 

Besides  these  causes  so  discouraging  to  the  free  and 
full  handling  of  God's  Word  in  preaching,  there  is 
another,  so  obvious  to  all  that  it  needs  only  to  be  named. 
I  mean  the  present  enforced  brevity  of  sermons.  Popu- 
lar feeling  on  this  has  developed  into  a  canon  which  no 
one  may  violate  with  impunity.  Life  runs  fast,  and 
speech  must  do  likewise.  The  demand  is  for  the  great- 
est amount  in  the  briefest  space.  The  bulk  of  every 
popular  assembly  are  impatient  of  nice  points,  critical 
details,  delicate  shadings.  They  want  the  lights  and 
shadows  thrown  up  into  bold  relief.  The  taking  style 
in  the  pulpit  must  avoid  the  elaborate  finish  and  rounded 
unity  of  the  Raphaels  of  art,  and  cultivate  the  chiaro- 
oscuro  enchantments  of  the  Dores.  The  conventional 
twenty-five  minutes  requires  a  bold,  free,  and  sketchy 
tongue,  piercing  at  once  to  the  marrow  of  the  subject, 
and  wasting  no  breath  on  minor  distinctions,  or  on  at- 
tempts to  be  acute,  or  subtle,  or  learned,  or  exhaustive. 
There  is  time  only  for  hints  at  Scripture,  not  citations 
and  expositions  of  it. 

Account  for  it  as  we  may,  the  fact  is  indisputable, 
that  our  preaching,  as  a  whole,  is  no  longer  mixed  and 
seasoned  with  God's  Word,  as  it  was  in  the  days  of  its 
greatest  power.  That  it  should  have  declined,  therefore, 
in  influence,  was  inevitable.  It  has  experienced  pre- 
cisely the  sort  of  damage  and  loss  which  is  seen  sooner 
or  later  in  any  function  that  neglects  its  original  end, 


282  Preaching. 

or  di'ops  below  the  primary  conditions  of  its  health  and 
strength.  By  feeding  on  weaker  food  than  God  meant 
it  should,  it  has  grown  weaker  itself,  and  has  helped  to 
weaken  the  life  it  was  ordained  to  feed.  Whatever  the 
fashion  of  the  hour  may  say,  the  green  slopes  of  heavenly 
truth  nourish  richer  blood  in  preachers  and  hearers  than 
the  arid  fields  of  human  invention.  There  is  only  one 
bread  that  satisfies  the  hunger  of  the  soul,  and  that  is 
of  God,  not  of  man.^ 

Having  endeavored  to  show  how  and  to  what  extent 
our  preaching  has  been  enfeebled  by  the  evils  conse- 
quent upon  its  attempts  at  popular  adaptation,  and  by 
its  partial  disuse  of  the  Holy  Scriptures,  I  shall  next 
inquu'e  how  far  and  iil  what  ways  it  has  suffered  from 
an  excess  of  individualism.  Individualism  is  now  a  rec- 
ognized phasis  of  life  in  all  its  spheres  of  development. 
More  than  any  thing  else,  it  indicates  the  tendencies, 
measures  the  growth,  and,  in  the  judgment  of  many 
thoughtful  minds,  describes  and  sums  up  some  of  the 
most  serious  evils  which  already  aiflict  or  threaten  the 
existing  order  of  things.  There  are  those  who  see  in  it 
the  consummation  of  some  of  the  fondest  hopes  of  the 
past,  and  the  promise  of  some  of  the  noblest  blessings 
which  we  are  wont  to  associate  with  progressive  knowl- 
edge and  advancing  civilization.  And  it  is  proper  to 
add,  in  speaking  of  this  type  of  thought  and  character, 
that  what  one  school  fears  and  denounces  as  excess,  is 

*  For  some  fine  examples  of  how  the  loci  communes  of  Holy  Scripture 
may  be  touched,  not  dwelt  upon,  leaving  the  hearer's  own  mind  to  follow 
out  the  various  threads  of  thought,  and  generally  of  the  ready  and  skil- 
ful handling  of  the  Word,  see  Blunt's  Parish  Priest,  pp.  165,  166,  passim. 


Preaching.  283 

welcomed  and  praised  by  another  as  a  healthy  modera- 
tion. By  individualism  is  meant  self-will  as  opposed  to 
authority ;  private  opinion  as  opposed  to  tradition ;  in- 
dividual life  rising  above  organic  life  ;  the  reason  of  one 
man  asserting  itself  against  the  common,  consentient 
reason  of  all  men ;  speculation  against  settled  truth ;  in- 
vention against  testimony.  These  are  all  only  different 
forms  of  the  same  thing ;  and  one  or  the  other  will  be 
adopted  according  as  our  inquiry  may  pass  within  the 
limits  of  the  State,  or  of  society,  or  of  the  Church,  or 
of  abstract  philosophy. 

It  has  already  been  remarked,  that  the  individualism 
which  is  deemed  excessive  by  some,  is  esteemed  mod- 
erate or  even  deficient  by  others.  The  latter  remind  us 
of  the  fact  that  the  external  forces  at  work  upon  the 
individual  are  always  immeasurably  greater  than  those 
working  from  within  him.  They  recall  the  older  and 
the  later  theories  of  civil  and  ecclesiastical  government, 
which  have  treated  the  individual  as  though  he  existed 
only  to  be  absorbed  into  a  life  larger  than  his  own ;  the 
supreme  fact  in  his  citizenship,  whether  in  the  Church 
or  the  State,  being  the  absolute  claim  of  both  on  his 
service  and  obedience.  They  tell  us,  too,  of  the  undue 
repression  of  all  healthy  boldness  and  strength  of  indi- 
vidual character  by  the  upstart  tyrannies  of  custom  and 
opinion,  warmed,  strangely  enough,  into  unprecedented 
vigor  by  the  very  excesses  of  modern  freedom.  The 
most  illustrious  apostle  of  this  school  says,  "  In  this  age 
the  mere  example  of  non-conformity,  the  mere  refusal 
to  bend  the  knee  to  custom,  is  itself  a  service.  Pre- 
cisely because  the  tyranny  of  opinion  is  such  as  to  make 


284  Preaching. 

eccentricity  a  reproach,  it  is  desii*able,  in  order  to  break 
through  that  tyranny,  that  people  should  be  eccentric."  ^ 
"  Custom"  and  "  opinion"  as  here  used  are  meant  to  be 
broad  enough  to  include  the  established  order,  whatever 
it  be,  as  well  in  religion  as  elsewhere.  To  break  away 
from  it,  to  develop  some  novel  and  decided  type  of 
personal  peculiarity,  to  encourage  dissent  from  what 
others  believe,  to  violate  the  general  concord  of  habits 
built  up  on  the  average  good  sense  of  the  majority,  is 
thus  elevated  into  a  cardinal  vktue,  and  declared  to  be 
the  main  spring-head  of  a  strong  and  fresh  life.  There 
are  multitudes  who  are  not  quite  ready  for  so  bold  a 
theory,  and  yet  who  are  travelling  on  the  road  that  leads 
to  it ;  their  views  on  social  and  religious  problems  logic- 
ally tend  that  way.^ 

Now,  in  the  judgment  of  others  (the  writer  included) 
evidences  are  not  wanting  to  show  that  this  individualism 
has  already  advanced  farther  than  is  safe  or  desirable. 
It  is  filling  our  young  with  conceit  and  pretension.  It 
is  telling  sadly  on  the  proper  respect  for  the  authority 
of  parents,  teachers,  pastors,  and  civil  magistrates.  It 
is  pulverizing  the  cement  of  law  and  order  on  all  sides. 
It  is  the  ally  of  sectarian  disintegration  and  religious 

1  John  Stuart  Mill,  On  Liberty,  p.  129. 

2  Froude,  in  his  Short  Studies  on  Great  Subjects,  p.  172,  well  re- 
marks, "  Mr.  Mill  demands  for  every  man  a  right  to  say  out  his  convic- 
tions in  plain  language,  whatever  they  may  be  ;  and  so  far  as  he  means 
that  there  should  be  no  Act  of  Parliament  to  prevent  him,  he  is  perfectly 
just  in  what  he  says.  But  when  Mr.  Mill  goes  from  Parliament  to  pub- 
lic opinion  ;  when  he  lays  down  as  a  general  principle,  that  the  free  play 
of  thought  is  un wholesomely  interfered  with  by  society,  — he  would  take 
away  the  sole  protection  which  we  possess  from  the  inroads  of  any  kind 
of  folly." 


Preaching.  285 

radicalism.  It  challenges  eveiy  thing  as  liable  to  over- 
thi'ow,  and  assents  to  nothing  as  finally  closed  against 
doubt.  It  does  not  fall  within  my  purpose,  to  trace  its 
effects  generally  on  the  Church's  faith  and  order,  but 
simply  to  note  its  vicious  influence  on  the  pulpit.^ 
Our  preaching  is  measurably  saved  from  this  influence, 
by  the  fixed,  objective  character  of  our  ecclesiastical 
system.  It  cannot  invade  our  worship,  for  that  reso- 
lutely bars  out  all  individual  peculiarities.  It  ought 
not  to  invade  our  theology,  and  will  not,  if  its  historic 
safeguards  be  understood  and  respected.  It  can,  with 
due  vigilance,  be  excluded  from  the  prevailing  tone,  and 
methods  of  our  practical  Christian  work.  But  preach- 
ing is  the  vital  centre  around  which  aU  the  influences 
of  the  time  revolve,  and  it  is  sure  to  be  swayed  by  the 
strongest.  It  is  an  office  whose  force  is  largely  depend- 
ent on  what  the  individual  puts  into  it.     To  be  strong, 

1  Dr.  Dollinger,  in  his  Re-union  of  the  Churches,  quotes  these  words 
from  a  distinguished  Protestant  divine,  Briickner :  "  Our  Church  is  in 
many  respects  reverting  to  the  condition  of  the  age  before  Constantine. 
Public  opinion  is  again,  on  the  whole,  enlisted,  not  on  the  side  of  Chris- 
tianity, but  against  it,"  etc. ;  and  then  goes  on  to  say,  "  Mere  naked  un- 
belief, or  hostility  to  positive  religion,  will  not  explain  the  phenomenon: 
the  mischief  lies  deeper.  The  general  superintendent  and  court-preacher 
at  Berlin,  Hoffman,  has  lately  written  on  the  Causes  of  the  Antagonism 
to  the  Church  in  Germany.  He  enumerates  many,  but  above  all  the  un- 
certainty and  discordance  of  the  doctrines  delivered  in  the  pulpit.  The 
impression  left  on  one's  mind  is,  that  the  evil  lies  in  the  want  of  confi- 
dence and  respect  of  the  laity  for  their  preacher,  in  whom  they  see  a  man 
teaching  simply  according  to  the  measure  of  his  attainments  and  from  his 
own  subjective  point  of  view.  They  have  no  feeling  that  he  is  supported 
on  the  broad  stream  of  Christian  tradition  flowing  down  through  eighteen 
centuries,  and  that  his  message  is  but  the  echo  of  the  voice  of  the  whole 
Church  reaching  up  to  Christ." 


286  Preaching. 

it  must  be  free.  To  reach  the  intellects  and  wills  of 
men,  it  must  draw  upon  the  elastic  vigor  and  freshness 
of  manly  and  earnest  thinking.  That  preaching  is  com- 
paratively worthless  that  is  not  saturated  through  and 
through  with  the  individuality  of  the  preacher.  He 
must  mint  the  gold  that  comes  into  his  hands,  before 
he  can  circulate  it.  Without  his  image  and  superscrip- 
tion, it  will  be  of  little  account  in  the  exchanges  of 
thought. 

There  are  limits,  however,  to  this  individual  force, 
necessary  as  it  is.  Within  these  limits,  it  remains  a 
healthy  individuality ;  beyond  them,  it  degenerates  into 
individualism,  with  its  attendant  evils.  These  limits  are 
generally  respected  by  the  Clergy  of  this  Church ;  and 
yet,  under  the  example  and  influence  of  what  the  lead- 
ing religious  bodies  around  us  consider  the  model  of  a 
popular  pulpit,  they  are  sometimes  so  far  forgotten  or 
transgressed  as  to  invite  a  word  or  two  of  warning. 
The  limits  to  which  I  refer  have  been,  perhaps,  suf- 
ficiently indicated  by  naming  the  things  with  which  in- 
dividualism antagonizes.  I  will  only  add,  that,  besides 
the  order  and  worship  and  faith  which  the  Church  has 
received  as  a  precious  legacy  from  the  Christian  past,  she 
has  a  temperament  of  her  own,  —  a  certain  genius  eccle- 
sice^  —  a  flexible  and  yet  tolerably  well-defined  tone  of 
thought  and  life,  which  shapes  and  colors  all  she  says 
and  does.  As  she  has  a  purpose  and  a  work  of  her 
own,  so  she  must  and  does  have  a  way  of  her  own  in 
studying  events  and  treating  the  questions  of  the  day. 
It  is  needful  to  her  health  and  peace,  as  well  as  to  her 
corporate  unity  and  power,  that  her  Clergy  shall  habitu- 


Preaching.  287 

ally  respect  this  characteristic ;  and  it  should  be  un- 
derstood, that  self-will  can  work  quite  as  much  harm  by 
ignoring  or  despising  this,  as  by  the  more  open  scandal 
of  a  direct  assault  upon  her  doctrine  and  discipline. 

It  is  claimed,  I  know,  that  we  cannot  have  great  think- 
ers and  preachers  under  a  system  which  has  so  much  to 
say  about  landmarks  and  boundaries.  Mediocrity  can 
plod  on  without  complaint  under  the  extra  weight  of 
traditional  teaching  and  traditional  order;  but  to  real 
genius,  to  high,  strong,  and  discursive  natui'es  throbbing 
with  almost  more  than  mortal  sympathies  and  aspkations, 
such  things,  we  are  told,  produce  an  insupportable  sense 
of  constraint  and  suffocation.  If  we  would  have  minds 
that  shall  mount  as  eagles,  and  catch  the  bright  sun- 
light of  the  coming  glory,  they  must  not  be  caged  within 
the  narrow  bounds  of  hereditary  customs,  or  tethered 
by  creeds  and  liturgies,  but  must  be  allowed  the  range 
of  the  mountains  and  the  sea  and  the  fields  of  air.  If 
history  did  not  teach  us  something  on  this  subject,  we 
might  submit  without  a  protest  to  the  doom  to  which 
our  more  liberal  friends  would  consign  us,  —  that  of 
dwindling  into  dwarfs,  if  not  pygmies,  under  the  press- 
ure of  a  traditional  influence,  —  a  transmitted  heritage 
which  we  are  weak  enough  to  consider  our  strength  and 
glory. 

But  it  so  happens,  that  substantially  the  same  system 
as  that  which  has  reared  and  fashioned  us  has,  in  the 
past,  produced  a  large  share  of  the  admitted  masters  of 
thought  and  eloquence.  As  matter  of  fact,  the  vast 
majority  of  those  who  have  adorned  the  Church  by  their 
genius,  as  weU  as  piety,  have  grown  into  greatness  while 


288  Preaching. 

toiling  in  this  very  harness  of  tradition.  It  would  be 
idle  to  name  even  the  most  noteworthy  among  them : 
the  list  is  too  long  for  that.  This  age  may  have  consid- 
erably widened  out,  and  altered  generally  the  conditions 
of  attaining  to  marked  eminence  and  power  in  the  sphere 
of  sacred  learning  and  eloquence ;  but  clearly  it  has 
not  done  so  to  such  an  extent  as  to  oblige  those  who 
aspire  to  be  strong  and  influential  to  cast  off,  as  leading- 
strings  which  the  time  has  outgrown,  the  honored  guides 
and  wholesome  restraints  of  the  Church's  system  of 
intellectual  and  theological  training,  —  a  system,  be  it 
remembered,  which  in  its  fundamental  principles  has 
been  identical  throusrh  all  the  Christian  centuries.^ 


^  "  Petulant  impatience,  disdainful  of  control,  intolerant  of  contradic- 
tion, and  contemptuously  neglectful  of  limitations,  belongs  rather  to  the 
fretf ulness  of  an  intellectual  childhood,  than  to  the  quiet  self-respect  and 
reverent  love  of  truth  characteristic  of  intellectual  maturity.  Not  such 
has  been  the  spirit  of  the  great  discoverers  of  nature's  laws.  .  .  .  These 
men  have  been,  without  exception,  believers  in  the  dogmatic  faith." 
(Vide  Astronomy  and  General  Physics  considered  with  Reference  to  Nat- 
iiral  Theology,  by  the  Rev.  W.  Whewell,  MA.,  London,  1833.  Book  iii. 
pp.  307-309.) 

Again:  "  Most  certainly  the  complaint  that  a  dogmatic  faith  cramps 
the  freedom  of  thought,  and  narrows  the  progress  of  knowledge,  is  singu- 
larly at  variance  with  the  history  of  the  past.  .  .  .  Freedom  of  thought, 
largeness  of  affection,  nobility  of  character,  and  political  liberty,  have  all 
been  nursed  beneath  the  shadow  of  dogma.  The  sole  exceptions  to  this 
f?.ct  are  to  be  found  in  the  corrupt  periods  of  the  Church,  when  she  had 
departed  from  the  teaching  of  the  inspired  Scriptures,  and  substituted 
dogmas  of  man's  making  for  dogmas  of  God's  revealing.  The  persecut- 
ing spirit  displayed  toward  Galileo  in  one  department  of  inquiry,  and 
toward  Erasmus  in  another,  was  only  an  effect  of  the  policy  of  suppres- 
sion necessitated  by  the  unfaithfulness  of  the  Church  herself.  But  so 
long  as  the  Church  has  been  faithful  to  her  trust,  and  has  taught  no 
dogmas  but  what  are  contained  in  or  may  be  proved  by  Holy  Writ,  she 


Preaching.  289 

I  pass  now  to  another  aspect  of  the  subject,  of  serious 
moment.  AJuch  of  our  preaching  is  too  vague  to  be 
strong.  Indefiniteness  of  matter  and  pui-pose,  in  any 
mode  of  speech,  is  weakness.  The  teaching  that  is 
not  positive  and  determinate ;  that  timidly  or  falteringly 
feels  its  way ;  that  moves  on  in  hazy  uncertainty ;  that 
utters  itself  as  though  not  quite  sure  whether  the  ground 
on  which  it  rests  is  rock  or  quicksand;  that  has  no  aim 
of  such  overmastering  intensity  and  directness  as  to 
draw  to  itself  every  energy  and  resource  of  the  living 
teacher;  that  in  every  conviction  makes  room  for  a 
doubt,  and  in  every  attempt  at  swaying  the  thoughts 
and  wills  of  others  regards  the  chances  of  success  and 
failure  as  about  even;  that  wanders  over  large  spaces 
of  feeling  and  belief  with  no  defined,  authorized  map  of 
doctrine  to  guide  it;  that,  in  default  of  settled  princi- 
ples, drops  easily  under  the  welcome  shelter  of  nega- 
tions and  compromises,  —  such  teaching  in  any  branch  of 
knowledge  must  be  without  value  or  influence,  but  emi- 
nently so  in  a  department  of  truth  whose  primary  object 
is  to  reform  human  character  and  conduct.  How  far 
this  quality  of  vagueness  prevails  among  us,  we  may  not 
be  able  to  determine.  Very  likely  it  will  be  overrated 
by  some  and  underrated  by  others.  But  unquestionably 
there  is  enough  of  it  to  justify  some  allusion  to  its  disas- 
trous influence  on  the  pulpit.  By  common  consent,  our 
preaching,  as  a  whole,  has  not  the  sinewy  firmness  of 
tone,  or  the  clear,  ringing  articulation  of  the  dogmatic 

has  ever  proved  herself  the  nursing  mother  of  free  inquiry,  religious  lib- 
erty, and  an  ever-advancing  civilization."  —  Garbett's  Bampton  Lectures, 
pp.  30,  31. 


290  Preaching. 

and  ethical  principles  of  the  faith,  or  the  resolute,  inci- 
sive bearing  on  the  field  of  controversy,  v^^hich  the  gen- 
eral latitudinarianism.of  the  time  demands.  Now,  this 
fault  if  we  consider  preaching  in  itself,  or  this  evil  if  we 
consider  it  in  its  effects  on  those  who  hear  it,  can  be 
understood  and  remedied  only  by  careful  study  of  the 
causes  w^hich  have  produced  it.  It  will  not  be  easy  to 
mark  out  these  causes  with  precision,  or  to  place  them 
in  such  bold  relief  that  all  alike  will  feel  their  force. 
They  shade  off  into  other  things.  They  operate  so 
gradually  and  silently  as  to  baffle  detection  by  minds 
not  accustomed  to  watch  the  shifting  phases  of  our  in- 
tellectual and  religious  life.  1  hey  are  not  tied  to  one 
spot,  but  float  with  the  tide.  They  are  not  as  fixed  cogs 
in  the  wheel  of  influence,  but  rather  as  gases  and  exhala- 
tions taken  up  into  the  common  air. 

And  fii'st,  the  Church,  as  represented  in  the  beliefs 
and  lives  of  its  members,  does  not  stand  out  against  the 
world  with  a  firm,  sharp-cut  edge :  here  and  there  its 
outline  wavers  and  disappears.  The  age  dislikes  dogma, 
and  is  restive  under  discipline.  From  the  drift  of  things, 
one  might  suppose  that  the  Church  now  and  then  grew 
weary  or  hopeless  in  the  task  of  teaching  the  one  and 
enforcing  the  other.  Evidently  it  finds  its  chief  comfort, 
amid  the  present  conflict  between  the  secular  and  the 
sacred,  the  speculative  and  the  theological,  the  things  of 
sense  and  the  things  of  spirit,  in  throwing  its  energies 
more  than  ever  into  the  practical  work  of  missions  and 
charities.  The  half-repressed  utterance  on  the  dogmatic 
side  breaks  out  with  the  power  of  an  enthusiasm  in  prac- 
tical affairs.     It  expands,  if  it  does  not  deepen,  its  life. 


Preaching.  291 

It  carries  its  creed  to  new  races,  if  it  does  not  do  much 
to  fortify  it  among  old  ones.  So  far  is  this  true,  at  any 
rate,  that  a  resolute  determination  to  push  its  dogmas  at 
all  hazards  on  the  world's  attention  is  not  now  the  fore- 
most fact  either  in  its  consciousness  or  in  its  work.  The 
Church  is  not  timid,  it  is  not  indifferent,  it  is  not  forget- 
ful of  the  deposit  committed  to  it  by  its  Head :  rather, 
with  a  memory  that  grasps  the  experiences  of  eighteen 
centuries,  it  watches  and  waits  for  the  tide  to  turn,  for 
the  blind  eye  to  be  opened,  and  the  deaf  ear  to  be  un- 
stopped. Now,  naturally  but  unconsciously  the  Clergy 
fall  in  with  this  mood.  It  affects  their  teaching  more 
than  their  work.  It  is  at  the  root  of  a  preference,  not 
always  easily  explained,  of  one  class  of  subjects  before 
another.  It  makes  not  a  little  of  our  preaching  pleth- 
oric on  the  ethical,  the  sentimental,  and  humanitarian 
side,  and  very  lean  on  the  side  of  positive  dogma.  It 
produces  a  certain  reserve  and  hesitancy  in  declaring  the 
whole  counsel  of  God. 

But  again :  some  part  of  the  doctrinal  vagueness  of 
our  preaching  has  arisen  from  sectarian  exaggerations 
and  controversial  distortions  of  what  the  religious  anar- 
chy of  the  age  has  reduced  to  the  disjecta  membra  of  the 
body  of  truth.  It  has  been  one  result  of  their  unhappy 
influence,  to  constantly  lessen  the  number  of  truths  to 
be  regarded  as  of  vital  importance  in  the  current  in- 
struction of  the  people.  But  to  depress  a  truth  below 
its  proper  rank ;  to  change  its  place  in  the  scheme ;  to 
convert  the  necessary  into  the  contingent,  the  essential 
into  the  expedient;  to  say  of  a  given  doctrine,  "It  is  well 
enough,  but  not  of  very  great  consequence,  a  harmless 


292  Preaching. 

opinion  not  to  be  forgotten,  and  yet  not  claiming  special 
remembrance,"  —  to  do  this,  is  to  rob  the  truth  so  treated 
of  all  power  to  kindle  the  tongue*  or  to  stir  the  heart. 
It  must  soon  drop  into  the  dead  lumber  of  the  pulpit. 
But  every  time  this  is  done,  it  adds  a  new  stammer  to 
the  preacher's  voice,  and  helps  to  spread  a  hazy  indefi- 
niteness  along  the  entire  horizon  of  God's  truth.  To 
drop  out  or  slur  this  or  that  dogma,  does  not  end  with 
the  loss  of  the  particular  dogma  so  handled :  every  liga- 
ture of  the  system  to  which  it  belongs,  all  the  nerve- 
centres  of  the  one  faith,  feel  the  hurt,  and  resent  the 
loss.  And  this  is  as  true  of  the  preacher's  power  as  it 
is  of  the  preacher's  message. 

Again :  the  age  is  in  love  with  free  discussion.  The 
freer  it  is  in  theology,  the  better  it  is  pleased.  It  enjoys 
the  excitement  of  an  open  and  familiar  canvass  of  all 
difficulties  in  religion.  Liberty  of  opinion  is  the  life  of 
knowledge.  Better,  it  is  said,  a  wrong  opinion  freely 
chosen,  than  a  right  opinion  passively  held.  The  winds 
are  unloosed  on  the  old  anchorages  of  the  Christian 
mind.  The  Clergy  are  treated  to  some  sneering  and  a 
good  deal  of  attempted  browbeating  by  the  proud  intel- 
lectualism  of  the  more  advanced  schools.  They  are 
charged  with  "  still  refusing  to  look  their  difficulties  in 
the  face,  with  prescribing  for  mental  troubles  the  estab- 
lished doses  of  Paley  and  Pearson,  with  declining  dan- 
gerous questions  as  sinful,  and  with  treading  the  round 
of  commonplace  with  placid  comfort."  ^  Men  are  tossed 
to  and  fro,  it  is  said,  between  the  authority  of  the  Church 
and  the  authority  of  the  Bible,  the  testimony  of  history 
1  Froude's  Short  Studies  on  Great  Subjects,  p.  194. 


Preaching.  293 

and  the  testimony  of  the  Sphit,  the  ascertained  facts  of 
science  and  the  contradictory  facts  which  seem  to  be 
revealed.  Sad  and  touching  pictures  are  drawn  of  the 
painful  condition,  on  these  and  kindred  subjects,  of  the 
average  man  of  the  day  on  one  side,  and  of  the  heavy, 
stupid  ways  of  the  Clergy  on  the  other.  Now,  we  may 
resent  this  tone  of  remark  as  insulting ;  we  may  declare 
it  impertinent ;  we  may  denounce  it  as  part  of  the  dread- 
ful masquerade  of  modern  unbelief;  we  may  boast  our- 
selves beyond  its  reach.  And  yet  it  does  affect  many  of 
the  Clergy.  It  drives  them  in  from  the  outposts ;  it 
tempts  them  into  silence  or  feebleness  on  all  save  the 
most  essential  points ;  it  leads  them  to  concentrate  all 
thought  and  speech  on  the  effort  to  rescue  something 
where  all  is  brought  into  peril.  In  this  way  vagueness 
creeps  over  much  of  their  teaching,  and  the  light  at  the 
centre  is  fringed  with  shadows,  which  deepen  as  they 
stretch  out  toward  the  circumference. 

Again:  the  most  sober  and  conservative  among  us 
must  admit  that  we  are  far  on  in  a  new  cycle  of  reli- 
gious thought.  A  transition  is  going  forward.  The  old 
questions  of  theology  have  not  changed,  nor  can  they 
while  the  Word  of  God  and  the  human  mind  remain  as 
they  are ;  but  the  modes  of  viewing  the  old  questions 
have  changed.  We  are  in  the  midst  of  an  effort,  put 
forth  more  than  once  in  the  history  of  the  Church,  to 
re-state  the  grounds  of  Christian  belief,  and  to  adjust 
its  proofs  to  the  altered  tone  of  modern  inquiry.  This 
effort,  before  consummating  its  task,  has  influenced  the 
Clerical  mind  in  four  ways :  it  has  given  it  more  play, 
lifted  it  out  of  some  hereditary  grooves,  knocked  away 


294  Preachivg. 

some  conventional  props,  and  inspired  it  witli  more  in- 
dependence. In  doing  this,  it  has  led  some  to  feel  less 
concern  for  the  maintenance  of  a  definite  faith,  and  to 
give  currency  to  the  notion,  that  the  larger  a  man's 
mind,  and  the  broader  his  grasp  of  the  great  facts  of 
life,  so  much  the  more  cloudy  must  be  his  creed. 

Again :  this  effort  to  lay  bare  the  foundations  of  our 
religion  for  the  inspection  of  the  faithful,  as  well  as  the 
faithless,  has  wrought  some  change  in  the  living  sense 
of  the  theological  terms  which  we  use.  "  Into  the 
work  which  God  gave  those  terms  to  do  in  the  ages 
which  framed  them,  holy  men  threw  their  yearnings  and 
their  lives.  They  were  sharp  and  clear-cut  as  cameos. 
When  they  were  used,  it  was  by  men  who  knew  exactly 
what  they  meant,  and  who  meant  exactly  what  those 
terms  expressed.  But  time  works  changes  in  language. 
Words  often  survive  their  first  fervid  meaning,  and  out- 
last, not  the  reality,  but  the  form,  of  their  original  work." 
It  has  been  so  measurably  with  the  theology  of  the  pul- 
pit, if  not  that  of  the  schools.  The  result  of  this  has 
been  to  render  some  of  our  more  elastic  and  inquisitive 
minds  a  little  careless  in  the  use  of  theological  terms, 
and  somewhat  vague  in  their  statements  of  doctrine. 
They  have  drifted  off  from  the  old  and  still  customary 
terminology,  and  are  themselves  unable  to  invent  a  new 
one,  and  unwilling  to  trust  the  Church  to  do  it,  even  if 
she  showed  a  disposition  that  way. 

But,  finally,  this  effort  to  re-state  Christianity,  and  in 
part  to  re-build  its  defences,  has  thrown  many  enter- 
prising minds  into  the  double  attitude  of  inquirers  and 
teachers.     But  how  can  a  man  teach  what  he  does  not 


Preaching .  295 

know,  or  persuade  others  of  that  which  is  doubtful  to 
himself?  How  can  he  offer  as  a  guide  and  comfort 
to  other  men's  souls,  that  which  is  neither  a  guide  nor  a 
comfort  to  his  own  ?  Such  a  man,  if  he  be  honest,  will 
teach  his  own  struggles  and  difficulties,  his  own  guesses 
at  truth.  He  can  do  no  more.  As  an  inquirer,  he  can 
pronounce  no  doctrine  "  erroneous  and  strange."  The 
teacher  must  be  a  believer,  and  "  a  teacher  in  the  min- 
istry of  a  dogmatic  Church  must  be  a  believer  in  a 
dogmatic  faith."  What  else  than  an  uncertain  sound, 
what  else  than  words  as  feeble  as  they  are  loose,  can 
issue  from  the  lips  of  one  who  proclaims,  under  the 
solemnity  of  an  official  oath,  that  to  be  settled  truth, 
which  he  knows  to  be  afloat  in  his  own  mind  ? 


LECTURE   VIII. 


THE    CLERGY    AS    EDUCATORS. 


In  the  two  previous  lectures,  I  have  inquired  what 
can  be  done  in  the  training  of  candidates  for  the  Min- 
istry, and  in  preaching,  to  enable  the  Clergy  to  regain 
ground  that  has  been  lost,  or  to  advance  to  ground 
not  yet  occupied.  In  the  present  and  following  lec- 
tures, I  shall  consider  other  means  looking  to  the  same 
end.  I  have  shown,  in  my  second  lecture,  how  dama- 
ging was  the  blow  inflicted  upon  clerical  influence  by 
the  general  withdrawal  of  popular  education  from  the 
control  of  the  Clergy,  —  a  result  due,  as  has  been 
shown,  not  to  the  hostility  of  the  secular  power,  but 
in  the  main  to  the  divisions  of  Christendom.  In  view 
^of  the  present  attitude  of  public  sentiment  and  of  State 
legislation,  some  may  think  it  a  waste  of  time  to  dis- 
♦cuss  the  possibility  of  recovering  for  the  Clergy  the 
ifield  from  which  they  have  been  driven.  But  it  can- 
not be  a  waste  of  time  to  discuss  any  subject  involving 
principles  of  vital  moment  and  of  perpetual  applica- 
tion, however  uncertain  and  remote  may  be  the  practi- 
cal results.  The  chief  obstacle  to-day,  in  the  way  of 
a  discussion  that  would  lead  to  such  results,  is  not  so 
much  in  the  .arrangements  of  the  State  or  in  the  tone 


The  Clergy  as  Educators.  297 

of  public  feeling,  as  in  the  apathy  or  matter-of-course 
acquiescence  of  the  Church  herself.  It  is  bad  enough 
that  she  has  abandoned  the  field,  but  it  is  vastly  worse 
that  she  has  lost  all  hope  of  recovering  it.  With  a 
strange  unwisdom  does  she  read  the  signs  of  the  times, 
and  especially  those  indicative  of  the  future  of  our  pres- 
ent civilization.  She  seems  not,  either  in  her  thinking 
or  in  her  practical  policy,  to  recognize  the  fact,  that 
modern  life,  so  far  from  having  become  fixed  in  its 
mould  or  unalterable  in  its  tendencies,  is  actually  fluc- 
tuating and  transitional,  dimly  groping,  amid  hovering 
shadows  and  apprehended  convulsions,  after  some  better 
and  firmer  order  than  it  has  yet  reached.  The  loud  cry 
to-day  resounding  through  its  borders,  for  the  absolute 
separation  of  Church  and  State,  may  die  out  before  its 
desire  is  consummated.  It  is  the  cry  of  a  now  dominant 
secularism ;  but  this  secularism  —  like  rationalism  in 
religion,  with  which  it  is  closely  affiliated  if  not  its  lineal 
offshoot  —  is  only  a  chapter  in  human  experience,  whose 
last  pages  are  now  being  written  out.  Its  cure  will  be 
in  its  own  shallowness  and  one-sidedriess.  As  a  move- 
ment, it  is  travelling  too  far  away  from  the  normal  cen- 
tres of  a  salutary  and  balanced  development  of  human 
life  not  to  be  driven  back  by  a  law  of  social  and  political 
as  well  as  of  moral  and  religious  gravitation. 

If  this  be  so,  the  Church,  so  far  from  resigning  herself 
supinely  and  hopelessly  to  her  present  enforced  exclu- 
sion from  the  work  of  educating  the  masses,  should  do 
what  she  can  to  hasten  the  coming  of  a  re-action  that 
in  any  event  is  inevitable ;  and  to  prepare  herself,  by 
the  effective  marshalling  of  her  resources  and  the  proper 


298  The  Clergy  as  Educators. 

training  of  her  Clergy,  to  take  advantage  of  tlie  re-action 
when  it  sets  in. 

Educationally  considered,  the  present  outlodk  is  dis- 
couraging as  to  any  probable  change,  in  our  day,  in  the 
attitude  either  of  the  State  or  of  the  Church.  What 
the  former  is  doing,  is  shown  by  a  formidable  array  of 
statistics  open  to  all  who  desire  to  know  them.  What 
the  latter  is  doing,  is  shown  by  statistics  that  it  would 
be  hardly  worth  while  to  gather,  except  for  the  purpose 
of  giving  a  sharper  edge  to  the  moral  which  they  teach. 
Our  Christianity,  save  so  far  as  it  is  represented  by  the 
Church  of  Rome,  which  in  this  matter  bears  itself  with 
energy  and  decision,  and  with  absolute  consistency  with 
its  own  principles,  is  doing  scarcely  enough  to  keep  alive 
even  a  theoretical  recognition  of  its  duty.  Beyond  a 
few  schools  and  colleges,  most  of  them  with  a  brittle 
hold  on  the  future  so  far  as  adequate  endowment  and 
support  are  concerned,  there  is  little  to  show  that  it  feels 
any  responsibility  for  the  general  training  of  the  people 
of  this  land.  It  will  be  idle,  in  the  way  of  rejoinder, 
to  cite  its  Sunday-school  work.  Limited  to  an  hour  a 
week,  with  no  power  to  compel  attendance,  and  reaching 
only  a  moiety  of  the  children  of  the  nation,  what  it 
does  in  its  own  sphere  of  moral  and  religious  training  is 
necessarily  immethodical,  often  vague  and  superficial,  and 
everywhere  inadequate  to  the  requirement.  The  only 
apology  for  this  work  is,  that  our  Christianity  is  doing 
the  best  it  can  to  occupy  the  only  field  left  to  it  by  the 
present  educational  policy  of  the  State.  But,  when  most 
charitably  judged,  what  it  is  doing  amounts  to  little  more 
than  throwing  a  few  buckets  of  water  here  and  there 


The  Clergy  as  Educators.  299 

• 

upon  millions  of  acres  requiring  constant  irrigation. 
Some  may  demur  to  this  figure  as  being  unduly  exag- 
gerated ;  but  that  it  is  not  so,  is  amply  proved  by  the 
sort  of  character  now  being  worked  up  into  citizenship 
all  over  the  land.  By  common  consent,  it  has  more  intel- 
lect than  heart,  more  knowledge  than  conscience,  more 
ambition  for  power  than  love  for  duty,  more  greed  for 
money  and  the  things  that  money  buys  than  for  the 
virtues  that  build  up  individuals  and  communities  into 
strength  and  glory.  But  my  theme  does  not  require  me 
to  go  into  consequences  in  this  direction.  Its  concern  is 
for  the  restoration  of  the  Clergy,  as  a  teaching  order,  to 
their  due  place  in  the  work  of  popular  education,  and, 
a  fortiori^  for  the  principles  involved  in  all  attempts  to 
effect  this  restoration.  Passing  over  practical  measures 
needed  for  this  eild,  as  belonging  to  the  Clergy  and  laity 
to  determine  in  Diocesan  and  General  Councils,  I  shall 
confine  myself  to  principles  which  can  never  perish 
because  we  forget  them,  or  cease  to  be  binding  because 
we  fail  to  apply  them. 

But,  before  proceeding  to  the  statement  of  these  prin- 
ciples, I  would  say,  that,  as  they  lost  their  power  in 
modem  life  by  the  long-continued  disagreements  and 
schisms  of  Christendom,  so  they  can  regain  their  power 
only  by  the  re-union  of  Christendom.  And  when  I  say 
Christendom,  I  mean,  not  sentimental  or  doctrinal  Chris- 
tendom, or  any  thing  for  which  the  so-called  "  common 
Christianity  of  the  day "  is  deemed  an  equivalent ;  but 
Christendom  organically,  histoiically  one,  —  the  unity  of 
the  one  Catholic  and  Apostolic  Church.  Every  step 
toward  this  is  a  step  toward  the  restoration  of  the  Church, 


300  The  Clergy  as  Educators. 

and  of  the  Clergy  as  representing  the  Church,  to  their 
normal  and  ideal  function,  as  educators  of  the  people. 

Let  us  now  inquire  into  the  principles,  that,  from  a 
Christian  standpoint,  underlie  this  whole  subject. 

1.  If  the  Christ  took  our  nature  upon  Him  that  He 
might  make  it  a  partaker  of  His  Divine  nature,  if  He 
became  the  light  and  life  of  humanity  that  He  might 
become  its  regenerator  and  Saviour,  then  is  He  the 
supreme  educator  of  man,  and  what  He  does  in  this 
capacity  must  include  the  whole  life  of  man.  For,  as 
He  regenerates  and  saves  the  whole  life  of  man,  so  on 
the  basis  of  this  regeneration,  and  with  a  view  to  this 
salvation.  He  must  educate  the  whole  life  of  man ;  the 
whole  life,  too,  not  as  an  aggregation  of  parts  capable 
of  being  quickened  and  fashioned  part  by  part,  but  the 
whole  in  its  organic  unity. 

2.  Every  thing  that  enters  into  the  re-formation  of 
human  life  in  His  image  falls  within  His  use  and  con- 
trol, —  as  truth  which  is  the  object  of  faith,  and  truth 
which  is  the  object  of  reason,  and  law  which  speaks  to 
the  conscience,  and  worship  which  directs  the  affections 
in  their  acts  of  adoration,  and  earthly  ties  and  callings 
which  develop  and  discipline  man  as  a  social  being ;  in 
short,  all  things  that  help  to  bring  man,  for  time  and 
eternity,  in  all  the  relations  of  life  into  conformity  with 
the  Divine  will. 

3.  As,  next  to  the  Holy  Spirit  of  God,  truth,  which 
is  but  the  reality  of  being,  is  the  highest  agency  in  the 
education  of  man,  so  wherever  truth  is,  and  in  whatever 
form  it  is,  it  is  Christ's  instrument  for  this  end.  But  as 
He  holds  in  Himself  the  reality  of  all  that  is,  and  so  the 


The  Clergy  as  Educators.  301 

truth  of  all  that  is,  He  holds  the  truth  as  an  organic 
whole,  which  is  but  the  reflection  of  the  unity  of  all 
being,  and  of  the  still  higher  unity  of  the  Triune  Divine 
Nature.  To  Him  truth  in  being  one  is  also  many,  and 
in  being  many  is  also  one.  We  may  break  truth  up 
into  parts,  separate  it  into  divisions  and  groups,  give  it 
names  expressive  of  our  human  conceptions  of  its  di- 
verse aspects.  We  may  call  one  phase  of  it  science, 
another  literature,  another  religion,  another  morality, 
and  so  on  to  the  end  of  the  categories  of  human 
thought ;  and  for  the  sake  of  convenience,  or  because  of 
the  necessity  of  subdividing  the  labor  of  searching  after 
it,  or  of  teaching  it  when  found,  we  may  handle  it  in 
fragments  and  sections  according  to  the  labels  we  put 
on  them.  But  with  Him  who  made  all  things,  and 
without  whom  was  nothing  made  that  was  made,  truth 
is  indissolubly  one  as  His  own  will  is  one.  And  if  all 
truth  in  the  universe  is  not  needed  for  fashioning  the 
character  of  man  into  the  image  of  Christ,  the  oneness 
of  all  truth  given  to  us  is  needed.  And  so,  in  fact, 
Christ,  in  His  training  of  human  character,  makes  the 
force  and  value  of  every  particle  of  truth,  so  to  speak, 
depend  upon  its  organic  connection  with  the  whole 
body  of  truth;  i.e.,  with  the  unity  of  all  being.  Now, 
if  this  be  so,  several  results  follow :  — 

{a)  We  cannot  cut  up  truth  into  parts,  and  teach  one 
part  as  though  it  had  no  vital  relation  with  other  parts : 
i.e.,  as  though  truth  for  the  intellect,  and  truth  for  the 
heart,  and  tnith  for  the  conscience,  and  truth  embedded 
in  man's  personal  relation  to  God,  in  which  all  worship 
and  spiritual  love  and  obedience  are  rooted,  could  be 


302  Tlie  Clergy  as  Educators. 

adequately  taught  in  their  isolated  individuality ;  sending 
the  same  human  life  to  one  school  for  one  sort  of  truth, 
to  another  school  for  another  sort  of  truth,  and  so  on 
until  all  the  varieties  of  truth  originating  in  our  surface 
conceptions  of  it  had  been  compassed.  Truth  can  be 
distinguished  according  to  the  aspects  it  assumes,  but  it 
cannot  be  divided. 

{b)  Truth  must  be  used,  in  the  education  of  man,  as 
the  Divine  Educator  uses  it;  viz.,  in  conformity  with  its 
own  inherent  gradations,  and  in  conformity  with  the 
gradations  in  the  structure  of  human  nature.  First  and 
last  must  come  spiritual  and  ethical  truth  grounded  upon 
what  God  has  revealed  of  His  own  nature  and  purposes  ; 
next,  truth  discoverable  by  the  faculties  of  man,  and 
resting  upon  an  ascertained  congruity  between  human 
thought  and  the  objective  or  subjective  reality  of  things, 
and  taken,  moreover,  in  its  order,  as  truth  in  the  world 
of  duty,  truth  in  the  world  of  mental  conceptions,  truth 
in  the  world  of  social  and  political  relations,  truth  in 
the  world  of  matter.  In  correspondence  with  this  order 
in  the  work  of  education,  must  be  taken,  first  and  last 
the  spiritual  and  voluntary,  and  next  the  intellectual  and 
aesthetic  faculties  of  man ;  all  being  treated  as  parts 
distinguishable  one  from  another,  and  yet  as  parts  of 
an  indivisible,  organic  whole. 

(c)  As  all  power  is  lodged  in  the  Christ,  the  highest 
being  exercised  in  His  divine  and  supernatural  King- 
dom, it  follows  that  the  kingdoms  or  states  organized 
in  the  natural  order  are  only  lower  expressions  of  His 
power,  and  are  intended  to  act  in  harmony  with  the 
Kingdom  which  embodies  the  highest  power.     If  this 


The  Clergy  as  Educators.  303 

be  true,  it  follows  that  there  can  be  no  properly  edu- 
cated citizenship  in  the  secular  state,  that  does  not  lead 
up  to  the  nobler  citizenship  of  the  civitas  Dei  which  is 
not  of  this  world ;  the  earthly  and  the  heavenly  train- 
ing being  only  different  phases  of  one  and  the  same 
discipline. 

(d)  Again:  if,  as  the  Christ,  the  supreme  educator, 
teaches,  the  present  earthly  life  of  man  be  only  the 
beginning  of  an  eternal  life;  arid  if,  as  the  beginning 
or  the  seed-time  of  such  an  endless  life,  it  be  also  the 
period  of  probation  and  discipline  for  that  life,  —  then  it 
follows  that  there  can  be  no  education,  worthy  of  the, 
name,  that  does  not  from  first  to  last  proceed  upon  this 
fact.  To  train  man  as  a  time-creature,  when  in  reality 
he  is  meant  for  eternity,  is  to  do  the  least,  and  to  leave 
undone  the  greatest  part  of  his  education. 

Now,  these,  beyond  all  question,  are  among  the  prin- 
ciples (and  I  have  named  only  such  as  immediately  per- 
tain to  my  subject)  that  determine  the  training  of  man 
by  the  Christ,  who,  because  He  is  his  regenerator  and 
Saviour,  must  also  be  his  educator.  How  they  cross  and 
contradict  the  principles  that  determine  the  education 
given  by  the  State  to  the  masses  of  this  land,  I  forbear 
to  inquire.  It  is  self-evident  that  either  the  Christ  of 
the  Gospel,  the  Christ  of  history,  is  a  vain  theorizer,  or 
this  Republic  is  building  its  life  on  rottenness  and  deceit. 

4.  But  if  such  be  the  principles  of  the  Christ  as  the 
supreme  educator  of  humanity,  it  remains  to  be  asked, 
what  means  He  in  his  infinite  wisdom  devised  to  apply 
them ;  for  truth  asserts  and  establishes  itself,  not  so 
much  by  formal  or  abstract  proof,  as  by  doing  the  work 


304  The  Clergy  as  Educators. 

for  which  it  was  given.  As  matter  of  fact,  He  did  not 
leave  these  principles  to  operate  merely  as  so  many 
ideas,  or  as  a  generally  diffused  influence  working  like 
leaven  in  the  measures  of  meal.  No :  to  give  them  prac- 
tical effect  and  abiding  power,  He  for  this,  as  well  as  for 
other  closely  related  purposes,  founded  an  institution,  a 
Church,  that  would  embody  them,  and  so  assure  their 
perpetual  application.  "As  Head  over  all  things  to  the 
Church,"  ^  He  invested  it  with  power  and  authority  to 
continue  among  men  all  the  essential  offices  of  his 
earthly  ministry,  and,  among  them,  that  of  educating 
the  race  on  the  basis  of  an  accomplished  universal  re- 
demption of  the  race.  And  then,  to  guard  against  any 
radical  failure  to  administer  these  offices  on  the  lines 
marked  out  by  Himself,  He  gave  to  this  Divine  society 
His  Holy  Spirit,  to  guide  it  into  the  way  of  all  truth,  to 
keep  it  in  remembrance  of  whatsoever  things  He  had 
commanded,  and  to  enable  it  in  all  needful  ways  to 
perfect  its  organization  and  equipment  in  accordance 
wtih  instructions  given  during  the  great  forty  days  when 
He  spoke  "  of  the  things  pertaining  to  the  Kingdom  of 
God."''  In  whatever  sense  a  universal  Kingship  and 
Priesthood  may  be  predicated  of  this  society,  it  is  cer- 
tain, that,  acting  under  this  guidance,  it  constituted  and 
ordained  for  all  time  a  Ministry,  as  most  Christians  be- 
lieve of  threefold  rank,  to  whom  it  gave  power  and 
authority  to  execute  the  offices  conferred  upon  itself, 
and  so  to  represent  officially  its  eternal  Founder  and 
ever-living  Head  as  Mediator,  Regenerator,  Educator, 
Saviour,  through  all  the  ages  of  history.  Thus  broadly 
1  Eph.  i.  22.  2  Acts  i.  3. 


The  Clergy  as  Educators.  ^  305 

commissioned,  it  is  impossible  to  regard  the  Clergy  as 
fully  discharging  the  functions  committed  to  them,  if, 
besides  theu'  ministrations  at  the  font  and  the  altar  and 
in  the  pulpit,  and  to  the  individual  sheep  of  their  flocks, 
they  fail  to  care  for  the  training  and  nurture  of  the 
lambs  of  the  fold.  They  are  not  only  Priests,  Preachers, 
Pastors,  but,  because  they  are  such,  they  are  also  of 
necessity  and  in  the  broadest  sense  educators.  If  any 
thing  be  more  noteworthy  than  another  in  the  ministry 
of  Christ,  it  was  His  tender  love  for  childhood,  His 
sympathetic  care  for  all  its  wants  and  capabilities.  His 
boundless  solicitude  that  it  should  be  adequately  trained 
on  all  sides  for  the  one  continuous,  immortal  life  in  time 
and  eternity.  Clearly  it  was  this  feeling  that  dictated, 
as  the  supreme  test  of  St.  Peter's  love,  his  constant  and 
faithful  feeding  of  the  lambs  of  the  chief  Pastor  of 
humanity  everywhere  and  in  all  ages,  —  a  test  of  minis- 
terial fidelity  as  fit  and  true  now  as  it  was  at  the  dawn 
of  Christianity.  Nor  was  this  feeding  restricted  to  this 
or  that  want  of  human  nature :  on  the  contrary,  it  was 
to  be  as  wide  as  the  empire  of  truth,  and  as  varied  as 
the  mind  and  spirit  of  man. 

It  may  be  said  that  this  view  of  the  duty  and  work  of 
the  Clergy  throws  them  into  a  larger  sphere  than  any 
one  class  of  men  can  possibly  fill.  Knowledge,  it  may 
be  said,  has  become  too  vast  and  diversified  to  be  com- 
passed, even  for  practical  purposes,  by  one  order  of  men, 
however  exclusively  they  may  give  themselves  to  the 
double  task  of  teaching,  and  of  gathering  and  assorting 
the  material  to  be  taught.  But  surely  they  may  do  the 
duty  here  assigned  them,  even  though  their  attainments 


306  The  Clergy  as  Educators. 

be  not  co-extensive  with  the  domain  of  knowledge,  or 
their  skill  in  handling  different  kinds  of  truth  fall  short 
of  that  of  experts.  One  may  teach  science  without  be- 
ing a  scientist,  letters  without  being  a  litterateur,  poetry 
without  being  a  poet,  art  without  being  painter  or  sculp- 
tor. But  the  notion  here  dealt  with  proceeds  on  a  mis- 
taken view  of  what  can  be  reasonably  expected  from  the 
Clergy  as  educators.  As  such,  their  chief  office  is  not  to 
be  accomplished  in  all  things,  or  to  be  intellectually  full 
beyond  other  men :  their  highest  function  in  this  work 
is  to  have  such  oversight  and  dhection  as  will  enable 
them  to  bring  all  knowledge  falling  within  the  limits  of 
the  instructor's  task  into  moral  relations,  to  develop  and 
insist  upon  its  moral  significance  and  moral  uses,  to  make 
it  in  a  practical  and  vital  sense  an  auxiliary  to  the  will- 
power and  the  conscience-power  of  human  nature  in  its 
efforts  to  cease  from  evil  and  to  do  good,  and  so  to  lift 
it  where  all  knowledge,  in  the  final  sweep  of  its  influ- 
ence, is  intended  to  be  lifted,  —  to  the  plane  of  the  spir- 
itual life,  where,  so  far  as  it  fulfils  its  noblest  office,  it 
will  help  to  broaden  out  into  steady  and  luminous  rays 
the  casual,  flitting  gleams  of  Divine  light  shot  through 
the  soul  from  nature's  own  lamp.  And,  I  may  add,  it 
is  just  this  work  that  our  generation  especially  needs. 
Knowledge  increases  faster  than  the  trained  sense  of  its 
moral  relations,  faster  than  it  is  turned  to  account  in 
guiding  and  strengthening  the  moral  liberty  of  man, 
faster  than  it  is  brought  to  bear  as  a  quickening  element 
in  the  process  of  his  spiritual  and  eternal  salvation. 
Were  the  Clergy,  in  their  oversight  of  the  education  of 
the  masses  (should  they  be  called  upon  to  exercise  it 


The  Clergy  as  Educators.  307 

once  more),  to  do  nothing  beyond  this,  they  would  do  the 
task,  perhaps,  most  needed  in  modem  life,  even  though 
they  never  entered  a  laboratory,  or  traced  things  "  within 
the  rocks,"  or  things  from  deep-sea  soundings,  or  things 
of  abstraction  drawn  from  the  bottomless  depths  of  spec- 
ulative philosophy. 

I  have  discussed  the  subject  entirely  from  a  Christian 
standpoint,  and  my  conclusions  rest  on  purely  Christian 
grounds.  But  it  may  be  well  to  view  it  from  a  national 
standpoint,  if  only  to  show,  to  those  who  believe  the  pres- 
ent educational  system  of  the  nation  to  be  established 
for  all  time,  how  fallible  and  insecure  are  the  grounds 
upon  which  this  belief  is  planted.  In  thus  -sdewing  the 
question,  I  leave  out  of  the  account  popular  caprices 
and  vacillations,  popular  fondness  for  novelty  and  change, 
popular  re-actions  that  sometimes  as  suddenly  as  inscru- 
tably reverse  or  shatter  state  systems  and  policies  appar- 
ently lacking  in  no  element  of  strength  and  stability. 
I  rest  the  case  upon  now  generally  admitted  principles, 
principles  that  the  best  and  deepest  thought  of  the  day 
declares  to  be  essential  to  the  organism  and  work  of  the 
modern  nation.  To  see  how  these  principles  apply  to 
this  nation,  the  fact  must  be  kept  clearly  in  view,  that 
this  nation,  speaking  generally,  while  it  assumes  absolute 
authority  over  what  are  known  as  its  public  schools, 
holds  itself  responsible  only  for  mental  training,  and  in 
no  formal  and  definite  way  for  moral  training ;  religious 
training  being,  of  course,  out  of  the  question.^     It  nei- 

1  May  28,  1884,  the  superintendent  of  public  instruction  in  the  State 
of  New  York  made  an  important  decision,  affecting  every  school  in  the 
State.     It  is  all  the  more  important  because  it  may  be  regarded  as  the 


308  The  Clergy  as  Educators. 

ther  forbids  nor  requires  its  teachers  to  inculcate  moral 
precepts.  In  the  eye  of  the  law,  moral  teaching  as  such 
is  not  obligatory,  and  mental  teaching  alone  is  formally 
recognized  as  the  foremost,  and,  if  they  choose  to  regard 
it  so,  as  the  exclusive  business  of  the  instructors  whom 
it  employs.  Now,  if  this  be  the  fact,  and,  being  the  fact, 
if  it  must  be  accepted  as  the  determining  factor  in  the 
nation's  educational  system,  I  affirm  that  this  system  is 
not  and  can  not  be  permanent ;  and  I  do  so  on  the  indis- 
putable ground  that  it  is  narrower  than  the  nation's  own 
life,  that  it  fails  to  reflect  what  is  deepest  and  strongest 
in  that  life,  that  it  leaves  out  of  the  reckoning  the  most 
distinctive  and  essential  bond  between  the  individual  and 
the  nation.  The  bond  to  which  I  refer  is  distinctive 
and  essential  beyond  all  others,  because  it  is  distinctively 
and  essentially  moral.  Ihe  individual  has  personality, 
has  duties  and  rights,  has  freedom  of  choice,  is  bound 

received  interpretation  of  the  law  touching  the  subject  of  religious  teach- 
ing and  worship  in  the  public  schools  of  every  State  in  the  Union. 

The  Board  of  Education  of  Disti'ict  No.  4,  in  Orangetown,  Rockland 
County,  N.Y.,  brought  before  the  State  superintendent  a  case  which 
elicited  the  following  decision :  — 

•'If  it  were  possible  to  devise  some  limited  measure  of  religious 
instruction  for  adoption  in  the  schools,  upon  which  all  these  diverse 
classes  and  sects  could  harmonize,  it  would  be  a  gratifying  result.  But 
this  is  manifestly  impracticable  and  impossible.  The  only  alternative, 
therefore,  to  presei've  the  benefits  of  the  constitutional  guaranties  in 
letter  and  in  spirit,  and  to  secure  to  all  absolute  equality  of  right  in  the 
matter  of  religious  predilection,  must  be,  however  reluctantly  the  conclu- 
sion is  arrived  at,  to  exclude  religious  instruction  and  exercises  from  the 
public  schools  during  school-hours.  These  principles  have  been  followed 
by  every  one  of  my  predecessors  in  office,  no  distinction  having  been  made 
between  Scripture-reading  and  prayers,  but  each  having  been  held  to 
constitute  no  legitimate  part  of  the  business  of  the  public  schools.^' 


The  Clergy  as  Educators.  309 

by  moral  law,  only  because  be  is  a  moral  being.  This 
personality  comes  forth  under  one  set  of  conditions  in 
the  family,  under  another  in  the  nation,  and  under  still 
another  and  the  highest  in  the  Church.  To  the  full 
extent  that  it  is  ordained  to  realize  itself  in  the  nation, 
the  nation  is  bound,  if  it  assumes  the  task,  to  educate  it 
with  a  view  to  its  fullest  realization.  Now,  the  individ- 
ual's right  to  this  is  a  moral  right,  because  it  grows  out 
of  his  personality,  which  is  moral,  and  relates  to  an  end 
which  is  moral  because  it  is  the  end  of  the  personality. 
Therefore  the  individual  has  a  claim,  that  may  not  be 
denied,  to  be  morally  educated  as  a  moral  integer  of  the 
nation ;  to  be  disciplined  and  developed  in  the  essentials 
of  his  personality,  all  of  which  are  moral.  Now,  so  far 
as  the  nation  educates  only  the  intellect,  it  denies  this 
claim.  It  educates  what  belongs  primarily  to  the  indi- 
viduality, only  subordinately  to  the  personality  of  man. 
In  confining  itself  to  mental,  to  the  neglect  or  exclu- 
sion of  moral  training,  it  not  only  puts  the  cart  before 
the  horse ;  but,  to  the  extent  that  it  does  so,  it  throws 
out  the  horse,  the  living  power,  altogether,  and  retains 
only  the  cart,  a  will-less,  choiceless  mechanism,  carrying 
any  load,  whether  of  good  or  evil,  that  may  be  put 
upon  it. 

Such,  beyond  contradiction,  is  the  conclusion  to  which 
we  are  forced  when  we  measure  the  duty  of  the  nation 
as  an  educator  by  the  standard  of  personal  rights. 
Turning  the  subject  round,  and  starting  with  the  nation, 
we  shall  be  brought  to  the  same  result.  As  with  the 
individual,  so  with  the  nation,  the  point  of  departure  is 
the  fundamental  postulate  that  the  nation  is  a  mora 


310  The  Clergy  as  Educators. 

person.  If  it  be  so,  then,  underlying  and  overtopping 
all  other  relations  that  it  may  have  with  the  individual, 
there  is  of  necessity  a  moral  relation.  But  if  there  be 
such  a  moral  relation,  then  it  is  the  parent  of  moral 
duties ;  and  among  them  the  highest,  the  most  urgent, 
and  far-reaching  must  be  the  duty  of  training,  develop- 
ing the  moral  being  of  the  individual.  Its  intellectual 
work  in  his  behalf  is  of  moment  in  the  long-run  only  as 
it  is  preceded  and  accompanied  by  its  moral  work  in  his 
behalf.  Now,  there  is  no  escape  from  this  except  by 
denying  the  nation's  personality.  But  that  the  nation 
has  personality  is  proved  by  its  moral  attributes  and  its 
moral  functions,  and  above  all  by  its  recognized  place 
in  the  moral  order  of  the  world.  It  is  so  important 
to  my  argument  to  establish  this,  that  it  may  be  well  to 
fortify  it  by  the  strong,  clear  thoughts  of  one  who  has 
made  himself  an  authority  on  the  subject :  — 


"  The  nation  is  a  moral  person,  since  it  is  the  organized  life  of 
society,  and  society  is  formed  in  the  spirit  and  in  the  power  of  a 
personal  life.  It  is  to  be  governed  in  the  conscious  determination 
of  the  will,  and  to  act  as  one  who  looks  before  and  after.  The 
strength  which  is  to  be  wrought  in  it  exists  only  in  rectitude  of 
thought  and  will.  Wisdom  and  courage,  steadfastness  and  rever- 
ence, faith  and  hope,  are  attributes  of  it ;  the  highest  personal 
elements  become  its  elements,  and  are  moulded  in  its  spirit.  The 
relation  of  the  individual  to  the  nation  presumes,  as  its  necessary 
condition,  the  existence  of  the  nation  as  a  moral  person.  The 
individual  becomes  a  person  in  the  nation :  and  this  involves  the 
existence  of  the  nation  as  also  a  person;  for  personality,  as  it  is 
formed  in  relations,  can  subsist  only  in  an  organic  and  moral 
relationship,  —  a  life  which  has  a  universal  end,  even  the  develop- 
ment of  a  perfect  humanity.     It  is  hy  reason  of  its  moral  person- 


The  Clergy  as  Educators.  311 

ality  that  the  nation  can  be  treated  in  the  sense  that  it  is,  as  the 
power  and  minister  of  God  in  history,  at  once  representing  and 
executing  in  its  own  sphere  an  authority  delegated  from  Him. ' '  ^ 

Both  parties,  then,  —  the  individual  and  the  nation, 
—  are  moral  persons ;  and  if  the  nation  assumes  the 
responsibilities  and  powers  of  the  supreme  educator 
within  its  own  limits  and  for  its  own  purposes,  it  must 
bear  itself  as  a  moral  person  toward  a  moral  person.  It 
must  have  regard  to  the  moral  elements  in  its  own  life, 
as  well  as  the  moral  elements  in  the  life  of  the  individual. 
But,  if  it  do  this,  the  nation  must  engage  in  moral  as 
well  as  mental  training ;  must  care  for  the  will  and  con- 
science, as  well  as  for  the  intellect ;  must  busy  itself  with 
the  formation  of  individual  character,  as  well  as  with 
the  advancement  of  individual  culture.  But  this  is  just 
what  the  school-system  of  this  nation  is  not  doing ;  nay, 
more,  what  the  nation,  through  and  in  its  schools,  declines 
to  do.  Therefore  these  schools  leave  undone  more  than 
they  do  ;  they  fail  to  meet  their  weightiest  requirement ; 
they  in  no  other  than  a  one-sided,  superficial  way  reflect 
what  is  best  in  the  individual  or  the  nation.  Sooner 
or  later  the  moral  instincts  of  the  nation  will  radically 
modify  them,  or  will  sweep  them  away  as  utterly  inade- 
quate to  the  life  of  a  people  that  means  to  be  a  great 
moral  power  in  the  world.  When  this  crisis  shall  come, 
the  nation  will  recall  the  Church  (it  must  be  a  re-united 
Church)  to  its  old  task.  The  Church  in  idea  includes 
the  nation  on  its  moral  side,  and  is,  under  God,  the  only 
authorized  and  competent  custodian  of  its  moral  life. 

The  Nation,  p.  21,  by  E.  Mulford,  LL.D.,  1872. 


312  The  Clergy  as  Educators. 

The  Church  has  renovated  and  enlarged  the  moral  life 
of  the  nation,  by  bringing  that  life  in  its  nobler  moods 
under  the  sway  of  our  Lord's  own  life,  the  one  true 
redemptive  force  working  upon  humanity.  The  Church 
can  do  every  thing  the  nation  can  do  for  the  training  of 
the  individual,  and  vastly  more ;  and  the  time  will  come 
when  experience  (it  may  be  a  long  and  bitter  one)  will 
prove  to  the  nation  that  its  best  course  will  be  to  com- 
mit this  mighty  interest  to  the  agency  that  can  best  care 
for  it.  Whether  this  shall  happen  or  no,  the  foundation 
on  which  rest  the  right  and  the  duty  of  the  Christian 
Ministry  as  the  chief  educator  of  the  people  standeth 
sure.  The  State  under  the  forms  of  law,  or  the  people 
themselves  by  the  force  of  public  opinion,  may  suspend 
both ;  but  they  can  destroy  neither.  They  can  be  re- 
voked only  by  Him  who  ordained  them.  They  have 
entered  into  all  life  permeated  by  the  leaven  of  Chris- 
tianity ;  they  are  among  the  abiding  factors  of  that  life, 
and  can  perish  out  of  it  only  as  the  authority  that  gave 
them  shall  perish.  Therefore  no  adverse  ruling,  no  neg- 
lects or  denials  of  to-day,  can  shake  my  conviction, 
that  sooner  or  later  they  wiU  re-appear  in  the  ordained 
circuit  of  their  power,  as  stars  re-appear  that  have  been 
long  lost  to  view  by  reason  of  the  vast  but  unerring 
sweep  of  their  pathway  through  the  heavens.  When 
the  day  of  theu'  return  shall  come,  God  grant,  that, 
purged  of  the  grievous  faults  and  errors  of  the  past,  the 
Clergy  may  resume  their  educational  functions  with  a 
quickened  sense  of  the  gravity  of  the  trust,  and  a  pro- 
founder  insight  into  the  character  and  example  of  Christ, 
the  supreme  educator  of  the  ages. 


LECTURE  IX. 

IMPROVED  METHODS  IN  THE  CURE  OF  SOULS. 

Another  indispensable  condition  of  the  revival  of 
clerical  influence  must  be  sought  in  improved  methods 
in  the  cure  of  souls.  This  phrase  contains  more  than 
many  in  this  or  in  the  past  generation  of  clergymen 
have  cared  to  see.  In  the  proper,  catholic,  Scriptural 
sense,  it  reaches  far  beyond  all  public  ministrations  to 
organized  assemblies.  It  embraces  indeed,  as  essential 
to  it,  teaching  and  preaching,  leadership  in  worship,  and 
the  performance  of  sacramental  offices,  —  marriage,  the 
visitation  of  the  sick,  and  the  burial  of  the  dead ;  but  it 
also  embraces,  as  equally  essential  in  its  way,  the  official 
contact  of  the  Ministry  with  individual  souls,  for  pur- 
poses of  instruction,  guidance,  strength,  comfort,  as  the 
need  may  be.  Hitherto  this  contact  has  been  loose  and 
ineffective.  One  cannot  criticise  its  method,  for  method 
it  has  had  none.  This  is  the  barren  side  of  the  pastor- 
ate,—  so  barren,  indeed,  that  we  have  shrunk  from 
discussing  the  causes  of  it  or  the  remedy  for  it.  It  is 
no  satire,  but  simple  truth,  to  say  that  the  cure  of  souls, 
save  in  ministrations  to  congregations,  has  come  to  mean 
little  more  than  personal  acquaintance  with  the  mem- 
bers of  the  parish,  conventional  greetings  in  the  sane- 


314        Improved  Methods  in  the  Cure  of  Souls. 

tuary  or  the  street,  and  social  chats  in  the  parlor  or 
at  the  table.  As  for  any  direct,  systematic,  searching 
dealing  with  individual  lives,  in  order  to  help  them  in 
their  temptations  and  doubts,  or  to  throw  the  guiding, 
strengthening  power  of  a  living  Priesthood  into  their 
struggles  with  vicious  habits  eating  into  the  soul  like  a 
canker,  or  to  apply  to  their  heart-weary,  sin-sick  experi- 
ences the  medicine  of  Christ,  —  there  has  been  so 
little  of  it  as  to  be  hardly  worthy  of  mention  in  the 
round  of  clerical  duty. 

How  we  have  been  brought  into  this  evil  case,  is  no 
mystery ;  but  how  we  are  to  escape  from  it,  is  a  problem 
that  becomes  more  difficult,  the  more  we  think  upon  it. 
I  say  it  is  no  mystery  how  both  Priests  and  people  have 
drifted  into  the  present  inefficiency  on  the  one  side 
and  the  present  estrangement  on  the  other.  Both  have 
their  root  in  the  theological  systems  and  the  theolo- 
gical tendencies  of  days  long  gone  by.  The  Calvinistic 
theology,  by  making  every  thing  in  the  Christian  life 
turn  on  the  doctrines  of  election  and  predestination  and 
efficacious  grace,  helped  to  produce  an  increasing  shal- 
lowness of  religious  experience,  to  tone  down  the  in- 
tensity of  the  soul's  battle  with  sin,  and  to  diminish  the 
craving  for  outside  help,  especially  from  the  Ministry, 
in  this  spiritual  warfare.  Elected  to  be  saved ;  predes- 
tinated unto  life  eternal,  irrespective  of  personal  right- 
eousness ;  once  in  grace,  always  in  grace,  —  these  points 
determined,  why  should  any  soul  be  profoundly  disturbed 
by  its  oscillations  to  one  side  or  the  other  of  the  powers 
of  good  and  evil  1  or  why  should  it  be  concerned  to  open 
up  the  secrets  of  its  inner  life,  and  to  have  its  hurts  and 


Improved  Methods  in  the  Cure  of  Souls.        315 

griefs  touched  by  priestly  counsel  and  guidance "?  In 
any  event,  the  question  of  ultimate  salvation  was  settled ; 
and  victory  must  emerge,  by  the  power  of  sovereign 
decrees,  from  the  present  strife.  Thus,  too,  the  Minis- 
try was  beguiled  into  dealing  more  and  more  with  doc- 
trines to  be  preached,  and  less  and  less  with  souls  to  be 
helped  and  healed.  On  the  other  hand,  the  Arminian 
theology,  leaning  as  it  did  strongly  toward  the  Pelagian 
view  of  "  every  man  his  own  saviour,"  and  hence  of  the 
ultimate  sufficiency  of  the  individual  will  for  all  grapples 
with  evil,  tended  to  evacuate  sin  of  its  guilt  and  power, 
and  to  make  it  in  all  respects  a  less  terrible  adversary 
than  it  is  represented  either  by  God's  Word  or  by  ordi- 
nary human  experience.  This,  too,  worked  itself  out 
in  both  ways.  First,  it  habituated  the  individual  soul  to 
think  that  it  needed  no  special  help  ;  and,  next,  it  per- 
suaded the  Clergy  to  confine  themselves  more  and  more 
to  the  proclamation  of  the  conditions  of  the  conflict  in 
every  human  heart  between  the  truth  and  the  Spirit  of 
God  on  the  one  side,  and  the  world,  the  flesh,  and  the 
Devil  on  the  other.  Further  on  arose,  by  way  of  protest 
against  both  these  theologies,  the  fervid,  -emotional  reli- 
gion of  Methodism,  issuing  in  oft-recurring  recitals  of 
private  experiences,  gradually  shading  ofi"  into  cant  and 
formalism,  and  in  inquisitorial  tests  of  vital  Christianity, 
that,  in  a  mechanical  way,  busied  fhemselves  in  turning 
the  soul  inside  out  for  the  inspection  of  the  brethi-en. 
Like  all  extreme  methods,  this  in  due  time  was  followed 
by  a  re-action  that  carried  with  it  at  once  the  dissent 
and  the  disgust  of  sober  Christians.  Alongside  of  this 
ran  the  methods  of  the  Romish  confessional,  with  its 


316        Improved  Methods  in  the  Cure  of  Soids. 

sifting,  prying  examinations,  dragging  to  the  light,  in 
common  with  sins  needing  help  for  their  extirpation, 
much  else  of  the  soul's  inner  life,  which,  for  spiritual 
ends,  no  tongue  need  tell  and  no  ear  should  hear. 
Both  systems,  each  in  its  own  way  and  degree,  helped 
to  alienate  Clergy  and  people ;  the  one  from  the  duty 
of  giving  counsel,  and  the  other  from  the  exercise  of 
the  right  to  be  counselled  and  directed  in  conflicts  too 
sharp  for  the  private  conscience  to  cope  with,  or  in 
sins  too  deep  and  subtle  to  be  reached  by  ordinary  re- 
pentance. 

Such  are  some  of  the  causes  that  have  worked  out 
the  present  unhappy  state  of  things ;  depressing,  on  the 
one  hand,  the  proper  influence  of  the  Priesthood,  and 
hindering,  on  the  other,  the  healthy  growth  of  spiritual 
life  among  the  people  of  God.  These  causes  must  have 
due  consideration  in  all  attempts  at  reform  in  this  mat- 
ter. It  is  evident,  that,  in  whatever  may  be  devised  to 
impart  to  the  cure  of  souls  greater  meaning  and  vitality, 
we  can  use  both  the  Methodist  and  the  Romish  modes 
of  procedure  only  as  buoys  to  warn  us  off  the  shoal- 
spots  in  the  channel  of  inquiry  along  which  we  must 
move.  To  effect  a  change  for  the  better,  to  bring  the 
individual  soul  and  the  Minister  of  Christ  into  more 
intimate  and  helpful  relations,  much  careful  and  patient 
work  will  be  Tequired  on  two  parallel  lines.  So  gener- 
ally has  private,  priestly  direction  ceased,  both  as  an. 
idea  and  as  a  fact,  as  an  inward  need  of  the  soul  and  as 
an  outward  function,  that  there  can  be  no  hope  of  its 
revival,  except  as  it  shall  come  to  us  through  a  new  crop 
of  religious  feeling  and  association.     And  there  is  no 


Improved  Methods  in  the  Cure  of  Souls.        317 

possibility  of  this  save  by  an  amount  of  deep  spading 
or  subsoil  ploughing  that  we  seem  as  yet  unwilling  to 
attempt.  The  standpoint  whence  our  religion  looks  at 
itself,  estimates  its  own  character,  needs,  besetments, 
and  dangers,  must  be  radically  changed.  A  vital  and 
profound  fj-erdvoLa  must  sweep  over  its  walls  and  through 
its  inner  courts.  It  is  idle  to  think  of  breaking  down 
the  present  popular  theory  of  Christian  life  and  disci- 
pline by  direct  assault :  it  has  too  many  side-props,  and 
is  too  firmly  buttressed  on  the  common  thought  of  the 
day  for  this.  So  long  as  the  average  Christian  is  taught, 
and  loyally  accepts  the  teaching,  that,  given  the  truth 
and  the  grace  of  God  in  their  ordinary  measures  and 
by  their  ordinary  means,  and  an  open  field  of  combat, 
the  individual  soul  should  for  its  own  sake  be  left  alone 
to  meet  its  adversaries  and  to  work  out  its  salvation, 
the  only  way  to  supplant  such  a  theory  is  to  put  along- 
side of  it  the  deeper,  wider,  truer  one,  which  for  spe- 
cial crises  in  the  soul's  experience  provides  special  helps, 
and  for  chronic  sins  and  infirmities  applies,  in  connec- 
tion with  all  other  means,  the  stea(^y  pressure  of  liv- 
ing authority  in  the  person  of  the  Priest  of  God  and 
deputy  of  Christ.  But,  as  has  been  said,  to  succeed  in 
this,  a  new  point  of  view  must  be  gained.  To  gain  this, 
something  like  a  revolution  must  be  wrought  in  the 
Christian  consciousness  of  our  day.  The  drift  of  modern 
,  thought  has  clouded  it  with  a  false  and  shallow  notion 
of  the  struggle  between  good  and  evil  as  it  goes  on  in 
the  individual  soul  and  throughout  the  moral  universe, 
and  it  has  done  it  by  blurring  the  lines  that  divide  them. 
This  cloud  must  be  dispersed  by  turning  upon  it  the 


318        Improved  Methods  in  the  Cure  of  Souls. 

fire  of  God's  wrath  against  all  iniquity,  and  the  only 
less  intense  fire  of  the  human  conscience  when  educated 
up  to  the  meaning  of  this  struggle. 

Again :  this  same  drift,  clothed  in  the  sober,  well-knit 
formulas  of  philosophical  speculation,  has  lulled  the  con- 
science into  a  false  peace  by  narrowing  the  measure  of 
human  responsibility  for  the  sin  that  is  in  the  world, 
and  by  lessening  the  guilt  and  terror  of  sin  itself,  under 
the  plea  that  man's  moral  liberty  is  a  feeble,  superficial 
thing  when  compared  with  the  devouring  sweep  of  the 
fatalism  of  law  and  the  omnipotent  force  of  external 
environments.  From  this  false  peace  the  religious  con- 
sciousness must  be  aroused  by  taking  it  down,  through 
truer  processes  of  thought,  to  the  centre  of  its  own  in- 
divisible and  indestructible  personality,  and,  above  all,  by 
converging  on  that  centre  the  blaze  of  light  reflected 
from  the  pages  of  Divine  revelation,  where  man  is  taught, 
that,  in  spite  of  all  time  or  earth  limitations,  and  of  all 
sophistries  spun  from  his  own  thinking,  he  is  free  to 
choose  after  the  manner  of  God's  freedom. 

Still  again :  the  same  drift  has  dropped  a  veil  between 
man  and  the  coming  world,  and  between  man  and  God 
as  the  judge  of  all  the  earth:  in  the  former  case,  by 
substituting  a  punishment  for  the  wicked,  of  indefinite 
for  one  of  endless  duration,  and  by  replacing  the  one 
probation  in  time  by  any  number  of  required  probations 
in  eternity  ;  in  the  latter,  by  giving  us  a  God  immanent 
in  all  nature  for  purposes  of  physical  evolution,  but  only 
dubiously  and  remotely  present  in  the  sphere  of  our 
moral  freedom,  and  positively  absent  in  respect  of  any 
supernatural  interventions.     This  veil,  already  to  some 


Improved  Methods  in  the  Cure  of  Souls.        319 

minds  distressingly  dark,  and  to  others  the  lurid  back- 
ground of  mental  and  moral  despair,  must  be  rent  in 
twain  by  unveiling  behind  it  the  continuous,  catholic 
interpretation  of  Divine  revelation  touching  the  future 
destiny  of  man,  and  with  this  the  double  witness  of  the 
human  soul  and  of  the  same  revelation  to  the  living, 
universal  presence  of  the  God  and  Father  of  all  in  na- 
ture, and  in  the  vaster,  more  real  world  of  the  super- 
natural, the  one  world  of  freedom  and  personality. 

But,  besides  meeting  these  issues  raised  by  scientific 
and  speculative  thought,  there  is  other  and  more  con- 
crete work  to  be  done  by  our  pulpit,  catechetical,  house- 
to-house  teaching.  That  teaching  must  be  made  more 
searching  and  profound,  both  as  regards  the  nature  of 
moral  evil  and  the  soul's  relations  to  it ;  and  this  with 
immediate  reference  to  strictly  spiritual  ends.  We  must 
revive  and  enforce,  with  fresh  energy  and  earnestness, 
the  old  doctrine  as  to  the  nature  of  sin ;  its  overwhelming 
power,  its  unspeakable  guilt,  its  eternal  consequences, 
its  selfishness,  its  anarchy,  its  corruption,  its  pain,  its 
wretchedness,  —  in  short,  the  whole  dreadful  analysis 
of  its  being,  the  whole  appalling  record  of  its  ruin  and 
desolation.  And,  on  the  other  hand,  we  must  tell  anew, 
and  in  more  burning  language,  with  a  more  fearless 
fidelity  to  facts,  the  story  of  man's  weakness  when  in 
conflict  with  this  enemy,  —  how  feeble  he  is  in  his  use 
of  the  helps  Christianity  off'ers  him ;  how  blind  he  is, 
amid  the  light  streaming  down  upon  him  from  the 
opened  heavens ;  how  vacillating  he  is,  in  spite  of  the 
firm  grasp  upon  his  will  and  conscience,  not  only  of 
the  moral  law  pleading  for  duty  as  the  central  fact  and 


320        Improved  Methods  in  the  Cure  of  Souls. 

supreme  dignity  of  life,  but  of  the  Gospel  of  the  grace 
and  truth  of  the  Son  of  God  fairly  flooding  his  soul 
with  the  power  and  the  glory  of  a  humanity  liftqd  into 
oneness  in  Christ  with  the  infinite  and  eternal  source  of 
all  truth  and  life,  as  well  as  of  all  power  and  glory.  We 
want,  I  say,  a  revival  of  the  old  doctrine  on  these  and 
kindred  subjects.  For  of  this  sort  was  the  teaching  of 
the  first  Apostles  and  Confessors ;  bound  up,  indeed,  with 
the  fullest  and  tenderest  exhibitions  of  the  pitying, 
redeeming  love  of  God  in  Christ,  but  always  keeping 
boldly  at  the  front  the  perfect  justice  of  God  as  a  con- 
suming fire  to  all  unrighteousness,  and  enforcing  at  all 
points  the  call  to  repentance  and  remission  of  sins. 
Such  has  been  the  doctrine  preached  in  all  the  great 
missionary  crusades  of  the  Church;  and  preached,  too, 
without  attempts  to  flatter  the  heathen  into  receiving  it 
because  of  some  faint  shadow  of  resemblance  to  it  in 
their  own  religions.  Such,  too,  has  been  the  doctrine 
uppermost  on  the  tongues  of  Priests  and  Prophets  in  all 
the  great  revivals  and  reformations  of  the  faith  after  pe- 
riods of  sloth  and  corruption ;  boldly,  irresistibly  driven 
home  to  the  common  heart  without  a  thought  of  com- 
mending it  to  men  as  only  in  myth  or  legend  coming 
from  God,  while  in  reality  only  a  mixed  and  somewhat 
shadowed  evolution  from  the  higher  consciousness  of 
humanity.  Give  us  a  generation  of  teaching  and  work 
keyed  on  this  note,  warmed  by  the  glow  and  invigorated 
by  the  strength  of  this  aspect  of  God's  truth,  and  there 
will  be  no  lack  of  souls  trooping,  like  storm-diiven 
birds  to  their  shelter,  to  the  Priests  of  God  for  counsel 
and  life.     The  deeper  life  will  be  followed  by  the  deeper 


Improved  Methods  in  the  Cure  of  Souls.        321 

discipline.  The  life  more  sensitive  to  the  touch  of  sin, 
more  profoundly  shaken  by  the  onsets  of  evil,  and  more 
terrified  at  the  risks  and  chances  of  the  awful  struggle 
with  the  world,  the  flesh,  and  the  Devil,  will  not  need  to 
be  asked  to  lay  open  the  hurts  and  bruises  itself  cannot 
heal,  to  those  whose  office  it  is  to  lead  the  burdened  and 
wounded  to  Christ,  the  Healer  and  Saviour  of  man,  be- 
cause He  came  forth  from  the  Father,  and,  as  incarnate 
God,  made  known  the  love  and  mercy  as  well  as  the 
justice  and  holiness  of  the  Father. 

But  if  there  is  work  to  be  done  on  this  lin6  to  awak- 
en souls  to  a  deeper  spiritual  life  and  to  an  adequate 
sense  of  the  needs  of  that  life,  there  is  also  quite  as 
much  to  be  done  on  a  parallel  line  to  prepare  the  Priest- 
hood for  a  fuller  and  more  eifective  performance  of  their 
duty  as  spiritual  guides.  The  training  which  makes  the 
theologian,  the  preacher,  the  catechist,  the  sacramental 
ministrant,  is  not  the  training  for  this  function.  It  may 
be  more  comprehensive ;  but  it  is  not  so  minute  and 
accurate  in  its  knowledge  of  the  human  heart,  or  in  its 
knowledge  of  sin,  or  in  its  knowledge  of  the  ways  and 
means  for  dealing  with  both.  The  one  is  inclined  more 
to  the  study  of  the  truth  and  grace  of  God  objectively 
considered ;  the  other,  to  the  study  of  them  in  their 
subjective  uses,  and  in  immediate  connection  with  all 
the  trials  and  vicissitudes  of  inward  experiences  which 
are  never  the  same  to  any  two  souls.  Here  the  Priest 
that  would  do  good  service  must  acquii-e  faculties  of 
penetration,  discrimination,  sympathetic  tact,  balanced 
judgment;  so  disciplined  and  matured  that  they  will 
operate,  in  the  world  of  human  motives,  human  weak- 


322        Improved  Methods  in  the  Cure  of  Soids. 

nesses,  and  human  sinfulness,  with  something  like  the 
intuitive  quickness  and  precision  of  instincts.  If  we 
mean  to  prepare  the  Clergy  for  this  sort  of  work,  —  and 
without  it  their  preparation  is  one-sided  and  fragmen- 
tary, —  we  must  train  them  not  only  in  the  science  of 
Christian  ethics,  but  in  casuistry,  which  is  the  art  of 
applying  it.  The  word  has  an  ugly  sound  to  so-called 
Protestant  ears,  and  generally  to  our  English-speaking 
race.  The  name  has  left  a  bad  odor  in  history,  and  is 
synonymous  with  much  that  we  have  learned  to  dislike. 
But  it  does  not  fall  within  my  scope  to  recall  the  ways 
in  which  it  has  been  abused,  or  the  ignoble  ends  that  it 
has  been  made  to  serve.  It  is  enough  that  we  bear  in 
mind,  that,  as  every  science  must  have  its  corresponding 
art  through  which  it  can  pass  into  practical  use,  so  with 
Christian  ethics.  It  gives  us  the  ascertained  principles 
of  right  conduct,  of  right  character,  of  a  life  brought 
into  harmony  with  God's  will ;  and  casuistry  is  the  art 
of  bringing  them  to  bear  on  cases  of  conscience  involv- 
ing doubt  and  difficulty.  Two  things  are  needed  to 
meet  the  requirements  of  practical  work  in  this  branch 
of  clerical  duty.  First,  we  must  have  a  wisely  prepared 
manual  of  examples  and  rules  for  the  examination  and 
direction  of  burdened  or  enfeebled  consciences,  covering, 
as  far  as  may  be,  the  wants  of  souls  seeking  help  and 
guidance,  and  the  ways  for  meeting  them  sanctioned  by 
God's  Word,  the  Church's  discipline,  and  the  Christian 
experience  of  aU  the  past.  To  construct  such  a  manual, 
will  be  a  task  of  great  delicacy  and  difficulty.  No  one 
mind,  nor  any  one  set  of  minds,  will  be  equal  to  it.  It 
must,  indeed,  be  a  growth,  rather  than  a  construction ; 


Improved  Methods  in  the  Cure  of  Souls.        323 

a  growth  bearing  a  catholic  impress,  and  at  the  same 
time  carefully  adjusted  to  whatever  is  characteristic  or 
peculiar  in  the  religious  life  of  the  American  people. 
For  such  a  work,  ample  materials  are  at  hand,  both 
in  the  Holy  Scriptures  and  in  the  varied  literature  on 
the  subject  already  existing.  As  might  be  expected, 
the  Latin  Church,  in  its  Gallican,  Spanish,  and  Italian 
branches,  has  contributed  most  largely  to  this  literature. 
But  we  are  by  no  means  restricted  to  the  authorities  of 
that  Church.  Certain  divines  of  the  Church  of  England, 
especially  in  the  seventeenth  century,  did  far  more  for 
moral  theology  than  is  commonly  supposed.  And  then 
no  one  can  tell  how  much  might  be  looked  for,  in  this 
line  of  inquiry  and  analysis,  from  the  mind  of  the  living 
Church.  Once  fairly  turned  in  this  direction,  the  same 
acumen  and  versatility  and  patient  research  displayed 
elsewhere  could  not  fail  to  produce  important  results. 
Besides,  there  are  some  new  helps  to  a  more  accurate 
understanding  of  the  phenomena  of  the  will,  the  con- 
science, and  of  the  whole  passional  nature  of  man,  put 
within  our  reach  by  the  recent  advances  of  the  psycho- 
logical and  pathological  sciences.  So  far  have  these 
been  carried,  that  it  might  almost  be  said  that  the 
strictly  moral  casuistry  of  the  past  is  to  be  supplemented 
by  a  casuistry  of  the  emotions  and  passions ;  starting 
at  the  boundary-line,  over  which  travel  to  and  fro  and 
often  blend  together  the  moral  and  ccsthetic  elements 
of  our  nature ;  and  ending  at  the  opposite  line,  running 
with  fluctuating  curves  between  reason  and  instinct  on 
the  one  side,  and  between  feeling  with  a  moral  trend 
and  purely  animal  appetite  on  the  other. 


324        Improved  Methods  in  the  Cure  of  Souls. 

Passing  over  details,  I  shall  at  present  attempt  no 
more  than  a  statement  of  some  of  the  fundamental  prin- 
ciples that  ought  to  govern  in  the  composition  of  such 
a  manual,  and  in  the  training  of  the  Clergy  for  its  prac- 
tical use. 

1.  It  must  contain  nothing  that  will  undermine  or 
dilute  the  sense  of  personal  responsibility  to  God.  This 
is  the  central  fact  in  our  moral  being,  and  it  must  be 
protected  and  upheld  at  all  hazards.  The  Gospel  mag- 
nifies it,  the  Church  develops  it,  God  Himself  respects 
it  as  part  of  the  foundation  on  which  the  works  of  His 
grace  and  providence  are  built  up,  and  also  as  part  of 
the  dignity  of  a  nature  made  in  His  own  image.  The 
soul  that  seeks  help  must  be  made  to  understand  that 
the  help  given  will  not  put  another  will  in  the  place  of 
its  own  will,  or  another  conscience  in  the  place  of  its 
own  conscience. 

2.  It  should  be  clearly  and  strongly  taught,  that  the 
ideal  spiritual  life,  the  perfected  life  in  Christ  Jesus,  is 
the  life  that  draws  nearer  and  nearer  to  the  great  end 
which  the  Gospel  aims  at ;  viz.,  the  gradual  substitution, 
in  every  soul,  of  a  character  for  an  outward  law,  the 
steady  progress  toward  a  habit  of  loving  obedience  to 
God's  will,  which  supersedes  external  rules  and  statutes. 

3.  It  is  of  moment,  that  it  be  shown  to  those  who  ask 
for  special  counsel,  that,  in  many  cases  of  real  difficulty, 
the  ordinary  means  of  grace  provided  in  the  Church  are 
sufficient ;  that  it  is  often  rather  a  craving  for  some  new 
expedient,  a  desire  of  change  and  novelty,  than  a  real 
want,  that  puts  souls  upon  the  search  for  special  reme- 
dies and  extraordinary  means. 


Improved  Methods  in  the  Cure  of  Souls.        325 

4.  Nothing  should  be  left  unsaid  or  undone  that  will 
serve  to  show  what  does  and  what  does  not  belong  to  a 
healthy  mode  of  self  or  of  priestly  official  examination. 
As  to  the  former,  there  is  always  danger  of  a  morbid 
kind  of  introspection,  which  leads  to  brooding  over  sin 
apart  from  any  honest  efforts  to  overcome  it,  or  to  exag- 
gerating sin  for  the  sake  of  magnifying  the  difficulty  of 
repentance,  or  to  excusing  sin  in  order  to  prove  that 
no  repentance  is  necessary ;  while  as  to  the  latter,  the 
examination  by  the  Priest,  a  prying,  curiosity-mongering, 
meddlesome,  hair-splitting  method  may  be  adopted,  that 
sifts  and  inverts  the  inner  life,  without  a  spiritual  end, 
and  barren  of  spiritual  profit. 

5.  There  must  be  clear  and  definite  teaching, — 

(a)  As  to  the  terms  and  conditions  of  forgiveness  of 
sin,  so  far  as  they  relate  to  the  transgressor. 

(b)  As  to  the  ground  and  meritorious  cause  of  for- 
giveness. 

(c)  As  to  the  channels,  pledges,  and  assurances  of  for- 
giveness :  how  far,  especially  in  the  matter  of  assurance, 
the  forgiven  penitent  may  accept  the  witness  of  his  own 
feelings ;  and  how  far,  by  Divine  arrangement,  he  must 
rely  not  only  upon  the  witness  of  the  Holy  Spirit  wit- 
nessing with  his  spirit  internally,  but  witnessing  also  and 
eminently  through  the  one  Baptism  for  the  remission  of 
sins,  and  subsequently  at  stated  times  all  through  the 
Christian  life  in  the  Sacrament  of  Christ's  Body  and 
Blood,  which,  besides  its  other  offices,  is  also  the  pledge 
and  seal  of  forgiveness. 

6.  In  treating  the  general  subject  of  the  forgiveness 
of  sin,  confession  and  absolution  must  have   their  due 


326        Improved  Methods  in  the  Cure  of  Souls. 

place.  The  time  is  coming  when  these  will  be  discussed 
in  better  temper  and  with  larger  intelligence  than  they 
can  be  now.  This,  however,  will  follow  rather  than 
precede  a  profounder,  more  sensitive  spiritual  life.  The 
closer  discipline  will  be  the  child,  not  the  parent  of  such 
a  life.     First  the  felt  needs,  then  the  remedy. 

7.  There  must  be  a  comprehensive  and  discriminating 
treatment  of  the  various  phases  of  religious  experience 
as  produced  either  by  various  temperaments  or  by  vari- 
ous moods  of  the  same  temperament.  There  are  the 
emotional  and  the  unemotional,  the  quick  and  the  slow, 
the  fervid  and  the  cold,  the  hopeful  and  the  despond- 
ent, the  reticent  and  the  demonstrative ;  and  each  very 
largely  governs  the  Christian's  inner  life.  And,  besides, 
there  are  the  shifting  moods  passing  over  each  one  of 
these  types  of  character.  All  Christians  are  not  Chris- 
tians after  the  same  manner. 

8.  As  introductory  to  all  special  training,  the  Priest 
must  be  taught  clearly  and  definitely  the  nature  and 
scope  of  his  authority.  There  are  two  kinds  of  author- 
ity, the  disregard  of  either  of  which  will  impair  his  in- 
fluence and  hinder  his  work.  There  is  moral  authority, 
the  essence  of  which  is  love,  and  the  outward  form  of 
which  is  character  shaped  by  love.  This  is  the  highest 
sort  of  power  that  one  soul  can  wield  over  another. 
But  there  is  also  the  authority  of  a  Divine  commission, 
of  a  sacred  office,  in  virtue  of  which  Christ's  Ministers 
are  required  to  exhort  the  people  "  to  obey  them  which 
have  the  rule  over  them."  The  two  authorities,  so 
blended  together  that  we  cannot  tell  precisely  where 


Improved  Methods  in  the  Cure  of  Souls.        327 

the  one  begins  and  the  other  ends,  make  the  perfect 
guide  of  souls.^ 

In  conclusion,  allow  me  a  word  or  two  of  exhortation. 
Let  no  distaste  for,  no  prejudice  against,  no  ignorance 
of  the  subject,  let  no  recollection  of  abuses  in  the  past, 
or  possible  mistakes  and  perversions  in  the  future,  turn 
aside  our  attention  from  it.  Let  us  do  what  we  can  to 
teach  Clergy  and  people  the  importance  of  a  closer  and 
more  searching  discipline  of  the  spiritual  life.  Let  us, 
with  as  little  delay  as  may  be,  incorporate  with  the 
present  curriculum  of  ministerial  training,  suitable  pro- 
visions for  methodical  instruction  in  this  department  of 
clerical  duty.  And  finally,  let  the  Church,  in  her  organic 
capacity,  mark  the  close  of  this  century  of  her  life  by 
entering  with  vigor  and  earnestness  upon  the  task  of 
lifting  her  Priesthood  and  her  laity  to  higher  concep- 
tions of  the  help  and  guidance  to  be  given  by  the  one, 
and  of  the  need  of  such  help  and  guidance  among  the 
other. 

1  For  a  fuller  treatment  of  these  and  kindred  points,  see  the  author's 
Condones  ad  Clerum,  third  edition.  Thomas  Whittaker,  New  York, 
1880. 


LECTURE  X. 

IX)GMATIC    TEACHING    AND    THE    PKIMARY    ENDS    OF    THE 

GOSPEL. 

In  the  present  lecture,  my  subject  will  be  the  influ- 
ence of  the  Christian  Ministry  in  the  closing  years  of 
this  century  as  affected  by  a  more  positive  teaching  of 
certain  aspects  of  "  the  faith  once  delivered  "  now  least 
in  favor  with  the  popular  mind. 

The  subject  will  be  handled  with  a  view  to  show- 
ing: — 

I.  The  kind  and  degree  of  dogmatic  teaching  now 
needed. 

II.  The  evils  arising  from  the  undue  exaltation  of 
the  secondary,  at  the  expense  of  the  primary,  ends  of 
the  Gospel. 

I.  In  discussing  the  kind  and  degree  of  dogmatic 
teaching  now  needed,  I  shall  confine  myself  to  such 
of  its  bearings  as  fall  within  the  limits  of  the  general 
inquiry  proposed  in  these  lectures.  More,  not  less,  of 
dogmatic  teaching,  I  believe  to  be  the  demand  of  the 
time,  provided  the  teaching  be  dogmatic  in  the  right 
sense  and  in  the  right  direction.  Certainly  this  opinion 
is  not  the  popular  one ;  and  it  requires,  I  am  aware,  the 


Dogmatic  Teaching.  329 

courage  of  one's  convictions  thus  to  cross  the  grain  of 
the  common  wish,  to  stem  the  current  of  the  common 
thinking  of  the  day.  It  may  be  that  I  am  the  victim 
of  a  sentimental  delusion  or  of  a  theological  fallacy. 
With  such  a  risk  before  me,  it  becomes  me  to  speak 
with  all  humility  and  subject  to  correction. 

The  present  aversion  to  Christian  dogma  is  not  so 
much  a  phase  of  the  general  insurrection  against  au- 
thority, supposed  to  be  characteristic  of  our  time,  as  it 
is  dislike  of  authority  in  its  special  opposition  to  the 
present  pronounced  bias  of  reason  on  religious  issues. 
That  is  said  to  be  the  aptest,  wisest  teaching,  that  does 
most  to  commend  Christianity  to  the  rational  judgment 
of  men,  and  to  bring  out  at  the  greatest  number  of 
points  its  intrinsic  reasonableness.  The  aim  seems  to  be 
to  make  Christianity  sit  as  lightly  as  possible  on  human 
nature,  fret  and  worry  as  little  as  may  be  its  normal 
action,  conform  itself  in  all  respects  to  the  intuitions  or 
spontaneous  verdicts  of  man,  delivered  especially  in  the 
form  of  his  higher  hopes  and  sentiments  touching  the 
dignity  and  destiny  of  his  being.  Now,  it  is  the  element 
of  authority  in  Christian  dogma,  that  stands  most  in  the 
way  of  such  a  mode  of  presenting  Christianity ;  and  so 
dogma  is  berated  and  disliked,  not  so  much  because  of 
the  particular  truth  it  contains,  as  because  it  so  embodies 
and  exhibits  the  truth  as,  on  the  one  hand,  to  depress 
the  plastic,  sympathetic  reasonableness  of  Christianity, 
and,  on  the  other,  to  restrict  the  freedom  of  reason 
considered  as  the  faculty  which,  in  responding  to  that 
reasonableness,  helps  to  develop  it  as  the  essential  if 
not  the  exclusive  ground  of  personal  conviction.     It  is 


330  Dogmatic  Teaching. 

not,  then,  all  authority  in  religion  that  excites  repug- 
nance among  many  professed  believers,  but  the  particular 
form  of  it  which  just  now  checks  and  ii-ritates  certain 
intellectual  rights  that  happen  to  be  uppermost  in  the 
common  mind. 

Again:  we  must  discriminate  between  the  dogmas 
that  excite  and  the  dogmas  that  escape  this  antipathy. 
Of  the  former  sort  are  the  dogmas  mainly  of  mediaeval 
and  post-Reformation  origin ;  of  the  latter  sort  are  those 
framed  by  the  undivided  ante-Nicene  Church.  It  is 
evident,  that,  the  more  the  latter  are  pressed  upon  living 
thought,  the  less  they  are  antagonized  by  all  who  pro- 
fess and  call  themselves  Christians ;  whatever  may  be 
the  feehng  among  ultra-rationalists,  who,  while  clinging 
to  a  Christian  nomenclature,  have  really  degraded  Chris- 
tianity into  a  mere  product,  like  other  religions,  of  the 
human  consciousness.  The  only  dogmatic  hostility  of 
practical  moment  to  us  as  teachers  of -the  truth  is  that 
within  our  own  lines  ;  and,  as  has  been  said,  this  is 
directed  against  dogmas  that  sprang  up  after  the  Church 
Catholic  fell  into  schism.  These,  we  know,  had  a  two- 
fold parentage.  Some  were  the  products  of  scholastic 
thought  running  in  speculative  channels ;  and  some,  of 
"  private  judgment "  interpretations  of  the  Scriptures, 
and  of  "  private  judgment "  inferences  from  such  inter- 
pretations. They  were  for  a  time  the  badges  and 
shibboleths  of  rival  schools  of  theology,  fii'st  heated 
and  then  hardened  by  the  fires  of  controversy.  Sub- 
sequently they  were  pressed  mto  service  as  the  founda- 
tions of  sect  organizations,  and  further  on  were  sharply 
maintained  to  gratify  and  perpetuate  the  sect  impulse. 


Dogmatic  Teaching.  331 

In  affiliated  groups,  tliey  one  by  one  consolidated  into 
isms,  and  crowded  more  and  more  into  the  background 
the  great  body  of  Catholic  verities.  Throughout  this 
process,  the  tendency  was  to  convert  opinions  into  arti- 
cles of  faith,  and  prejudices  into  principles,  and  non- 
essential diiferences  of  all  sorts  into  life-and-death  con- 
victions. Thus,  as  the  area  of  bondage  to  the  inventions 
and  traditions  of  men  was  expanded,  the  area  of  lawful 
Catholic  liberty  was  contracted.  A  re-action  fron\  all 
this  was  inevitable,  and  to-day  we  are  in  the  midst  of 
it.  Christian  men  are  outspoken  and  resolute,  in  many 
quarters,  in  their  opposition  to  a  dogmatic  faith,  when 
they  really  mean  to  oppose  only  those  forms  of  it  which 
are  of  mediaeval  or  post-Reformation  growth.  If  we 
go  deep  enough  into  their  feeling,  we  soon  find  that  the 
strength  of  their  hostility  to  these  only  measures  fairly 
the  strength  of  their  instinctive  leaning  to  the  Church's 
witness  and  teaching  during  the  first  five  hundred  years 
of  her  existence,  when  she  affirmed  nothing  as  of  the 
substance  of  the  faith  that  could  not  be  traced  back  and 
identified  as  part  of  her  testimony  from  the  beginning. 
And  when  I  say,  that,  to  advance  the  influence  of  the 
Clergy  as  a  teaching  body,  more  dogma  is  needed,  I 
mean  dogma  of  the  primitive  Catholic  stamp  as  contrast- 
ed with  dogma  worked  out  by  schools  and  schisms  and 
sects,  —  the  disjecta  membra  of  the  body,  and  therefore 
the  fragmentary  progeny  of  a  dismembered  progenitor. 
Now,  so  far  as  dogmatic  Christianity  is  concerned,  this 
is  the  phase  of  living  thought  with  which  we  have  to 
deal ;  and  we  can  deal  with  it  successfully  only  as  we 
become  more  definite  and  positive  in  our  witness  to  this 


332  Dogmatic  Teaching. 

aspect  of  Christianity.  What  we  want,  and  what  our 
time  wants,  is  more  of  the  authority  and  force  of  dogma 
thus  understood,  —  dogma  as  the  plain,  simple  expres- 
sion of  the  historic  facts  and  historic  teachings  of  the 
faith  Formulated  by  the  undivided  Church  while  she  yet 
felt  the  thrill  of  the  first  impulse  of  her  Divine  Head, 
and  bore  the  impress  in  her  visible  unity  of  the  original 
Pentecostal  gift  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  And  now,  to  go  a 
step  farther,  I  claim  that  more  of  this  dogma  is  needed 
—  or  rather  a  stronger,  bolder  utterance  of  it  —  for  rea- 
sons which  I  can  only  state,  and  not  attempt  to  argue. 

[a)  A  definite  Christian  belief  is  the  only  solid  basis 
of  a  positively  Christian  practice.  But  it  is  the  tend- 
ency of  the  time  to  supplant  belief  by  ethical  sentiment 
or  by  spiritual  sympathies  and  aspirations.  Dogma  is 
essential  to  belief,  as  the  backbone  and  ribs  are  essential 
to  the  body.  Without  a  fixed  framework  there  can  be 
no  adhering  tissues. 

(h)  Dogma  is  essential  to  the  conservation  of  the  nor- 
mal type  of  the  Christian  life.  It  supplies,  not  only  the 
anchorage  of  that  life,  but  the  perpetual  mould  in  which 
all  its  fundamental  elements  are  shaped  after  the  image 
of  Christ. 

(c)  Dogma  is  essential  to  Christian  morality.  It  fur- 
nishes, in  portable,  concrete  form,  at  once  the  perfect 
standard  and  the  perfect  sanction  of  duty :  the  one 
telling  us  what  we  ought  to  do  or  leave  undone ;  the 
other  telling  us  why,  supplying  the  vital,  dynamic  energy 
which  alone  can  sufficiently  invigorate  the  will  and 
quicken  the  conscience. 

(d)  Dogma  is  essential  to  the  Church  as  an  ecclesia 


Dogmatic  Teaching.  333 

docens.  The  truth  is  committed  to  her  to  teach  as, 
through  the  operation  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  the  principle 
of  a  new  life.  But  she  can  teach  the  truth  only  as  she 
can  give  it  form.  Formless  truth  is  an  airy  nothing  to 
the  intellect  and  the  heart.  To  be  available  for  use,  it 
must  put  on  the  dress  of  language,  and,  with  the  dress, 
the  inevitable  limitations  of  language.  There  must  be 
a  creed  to  have  a  credo. 

(e)  Dogma  is  essential  to  the  continuous  maintenance 
of  intellectual  activity  in  the  Church  workmg  for  spirit- 
ual ends.  It  presents  truth  as  the  subject  of  analysis 
and  synthesis,  of  evidence  and  logic,  of  exposition  and 
illustration ;  in  order  to  evolve  the  unity  and  harmony 
of  the  revealed  testimony  of  God,  and  the  testimony,  in 
philosophical  form,  of  the  natural  reason. 

But  it  may  be  asked,  Why  rely  upon  Christian  dogma, 
at  best  a  derived  and  secondary  product,  for  these  pur- 
poses, when  the  Christ,  who  is  its  root  and  ground,  is 
available,  —  the  Christ  offered  to  us  in  the  definiteness 
and  positiveness  of  an  historic  person  ?  I  answer,  His- 
torically definite  and  positive  as  the  Christ  was,  man- 
kind, when  left  to  themselves,  have  differed  radically 
as  to  who  He  was  and  what  He  came  to  do ;  as  to 
whether  He  was  very  God  or  very  man,  or  both  in  one 
person ;  as  to  whether  He  came  only  to  show  us  the 
true  life  and  how  to  live  it,  or,  besides  this,  to  offer 
himself  as  an  oblation  and  satisfaction  for  the  sins  of  the 
whole  world.  In  fact,  we  have  the  Unitarian  Christ, 
the  Socinian  Christ,  the  humanitarian  Christ,  the  Christ 
of  philosophical  idealism,  the  pantheistic  Christ,  and 
the  Christ  of  the  Nicene  Symbol,  —  the  Christ  of  the 


334  Dogmatic  Teaching. 

Holy  Catholic  Church.  Now,  to  disprove  and  set  aside 
the  fragmentary  Christs,  originating  in  a  rationalistic 
handling  of  revelation;  to  hold  and  teach  the  com- 
plete Christ  of  the  Gospels  and  of  the  Catholic  Church  ; 
to  present  Him  to  men,  not  only  in  the  fulness  of 
His  Divine  offices,  but  as  well  in  the  integral  force 
of  his  human  example.  He  must  be  held  and  taught, 
and  men  must  be  persuaded  to  accept  him,  as  he  is 
embodied  in  the  dogmatic  consensus  of  the  whole 
Body  of  which  Himself  is  the  ever-living  Head.  Indi- 
dividual  minds  are  constantly  shifting  their  point  of 
view,  and  with  this  then-  reasonings  and  conclusions. 
Schools  of  thought  are  as  constantly  modified  by  fresh 
infusions  from  systems  of  speculation  that  never  con- 
tinue in  one  stay,  and  so  with  their  Christology.  The 
only  rock  that  will  hold  our  feet  amid  the  unsteady 
waters  is  the  unchangeable  testimony  of  the  once  undi- 
vided Church,  the  dogma  of  the  Catholic  creed.  There 
never  has  been  a  time  when  more  than  now  the  Clergy 
have  been  required  to  maintain  this  dogma  with  inflexi- 
ble firmness.  The  old  time-worn  assaults  upon  it  are 
giving  way,  only  to  make  room  for  new  ones,  better 
adapted  to  the  half-religious,  half-speculative  temper  of 
our  day.  A  movement  is  upon  us,  self-christened  as 
the  Theological  Renaissance,  of  which  I  shall  speak 
more  fully  later  on,  but  just  here  only  so  far  as  my 
immediate  purpose  demands.  This  movement  is  relax- 
ing the  traditional  dogma  of  Christ  on  two  sides.  On 
the  one,  it  has  cut  off  and  thrown  aside  all  that  part 
of  it  relating  to  the  death  of  Christ  as  (according  to 
Catholic  teaching)  an  expiation,  a  satisfaction,  a  pro- 


Dogmatic  Teaching.  335 

pitiation,  offered  to  God  for  the  sins  of  the  world; 
while  on  the  other  it  is  casting  out  the  consentient, 
orthodox  definitions  of  the  two  natures  and  one  person 
of  Christ  as  so  many  clogs  and  incumbrances  to  the 
fuller  and  freer  exhibition  of  His  human  example.  It 
holds  that  the  living  power  of  this  example  has  been 
straitened  and  damaged  by  the  sharp  dogmatic  lines 
within  which  tradition  has  forced  it.  It  is  now  de- 
manded that  this  pattern  life  shall  be  emancipated  from 
the  trammels  of  oecumenical  councils  and  petrified 
creeds,  and  be  brought  forth  into  the  common  air  of 
every-day  needs  and  aspirations.  Such  is  the  claim, 
such  the  purpose,  of  this  renaissance  of  theology,  this 
reformation  of  Christianity.  Now,  as  for  this  latter 
cleavage  of  the  ancient  Christian  tradition,  it  can  be 
shown,  with  an  irresistible  force  of  reasoning,  from  all 
the  facts  and  issues  involved,  that  this  new  movement 
will  hinder,  not  help,  the  object  it  has  in  view ;  that  in 
clipping  the  old  creed-roots  of  Christ,  driven  deep  into 
the  Church's  consciousness  by  the  witness  of  the  indwell- 
ing Spirit  and  by  the  experience  of  the  Christian  cen- 
turies, it  will  end  in  giving  us  an  imperfect  Christ,  and 
so  an  imperfect,  partially  powerless,  human  example  of 
Christ.  It  can  be  shown,  too,  by  the  same  reasoning, 
that  this  movement  fails  to  present  an  adequate  motive 
for  the  incarnation  of  Christ,  or  a  satisfactory  view  of 
the  universality  of  Christ's  human  nature,  or  a  true 
doctrine  of  the  immanence  of  Christ  in  his  Church,  as 
the  life  of  her  life,  and  the  life  of  every  soul  grafted 
into  her  and  joined  to  Him  by  a  living  faith.  It  can 
be  proved,  moreover,  that  the  dogmatic  decisions  of  the 


336  Dogmatic  Teaching. 

Universal  Councils,  so  far  from  being  an  incumbering, 
needless  surplusage,  are  necessary  to  guard  the  complete 
doctrine  of  the  second  Adam. 

"Christ  must  be  absolutely  God;  otherwise,  in  becoming  in- 
corporate with  Him  we  should  not  really  be  made  one  with  the 
source  and  end  of  our  being.  Here  is  the  justification  of  the 
Nicene  Creed.  Christ  must  have  all  parts  of  our  human  nature, 
must  be  completel}'  man ;  for  our  whole  nature  needs  renewing, 
and  what  shall  renew  it  save  the  whole  humanity  of  Christ? 
Hence  the  condemnation  of  Apollinaris.  Christ,  once  again,  must 
be  permanently  and  forever  distinctly  man  ;  for  it  is  here  and  now 
that  fallen  men  need  from  the  high  heaven  a  true  humanity  to  be 
their  new  life.  Hence  the  Chalcedonian  decree.  Christ,  lastly, 
must  be  no  individual  man,  one  of  many  taken  up  into  oneness 
with  God,  two  persons,  man  and  God ;  otherwise  the  very  indi- 
vidual personality  of  His  human  nature  isolates  Him  from  us,  and 
keeps  Him  separate.  But  He  is  the  very  and  eternal  Word,  the 
author  of  life  to  all  men,  the  underlj'ing  sustainer  of  all  lower 
personalities,  who  has  taken  a  human  nature  into  His  own  person, 
to  quicken  it  with  new  fertilities  of  life,  and  to  impart  it  as  a  com- 
mon principle  of  restoration  to  the  whole  race  of  redeemed  man. 
Here  is  the  justification  of  Cyril  and  of  Ephesus.  All  the  decrees 
of  the  (Ecumenical  Councils  are  exempt  from  the  charge  of  being 
pieces  of  unnecessar}'  dogmatism,  to  anj'  one  who  really*  appreciates 
what  lies  hid  in  the  title  of  Christ,  'the  second  Adam,'  and  the 
spiritual  relation  of  Him,  the  Head,  to  us  His  members."  ^ 

I  repeat,  then,  that,  instead  of  wanting  less,  the  age 
really  demands  more  of  Catholic  dogma  touching  all 
the  essential  verities  of  the  faith ;  and,  besides  more 
dogma  of  this  sort,  it  demands  from  the  Clergy,  if  they 
would  show  due  regard  to  their  office  and  influence  as 
a  teaching  order,  a  more  decisive  and  explicit  utterance 

1  The  Church  Quarterly  Review,  1883. 


Dogmatic  Teaching.  337 

of  it.  The  Churcli  at  sundry  times  has  disintegrated 
or  diluted  her  dogmatic  teaching  by  various  styles  of 
handling  the  faith,  as  well  in  the  formal,  didactic  duty 
of  the  pulpit  as  in  her  devotional  and  practical  litera- 
ture. She  has  had  the  mystical  style,  the  sentimental 
style,  the  ethical  style,  the  rationalistic  style.  Each 
in  its  own  way  has  wrought  harm ;  and,  if  history 
teaches  any  lesson  with  more  emphasis  than  another, 
it  teaches  us  what  the  harm  has  been. 

I  believe  it  to  be  historically  certain  that  the  world 
has  been,  in  its  religious  life,  profoundly  and  perma- 
nently changed,  not  by  preaching  "  the  inner  light,"  or 
by  preaching  Christian  sentiment,  or  by  preaching 
morals,  or  by  preaching  the  conclusions  of  human 
reason,  or  even  by  preaching  the  perfect  example  of 
Christ ;  but  by  preaching  dogma  as  the  underlying 
substance  and  concrete  form  of  what  is  highest  and  best 
in  all.  Take  the  strongest  line,  —  that  of  example. 
This,  so  far  as  it  consists  of  the  details  of  Christ's  life, 
was  not  the  foremost  theme  of  the  early  teachers  of 
Christianity.  This  was  not  the  line  they  took  in  deal- 
ing with  the  Jewish  or  the  Gentile  world.  Indeed,  as 
has  been  truly  said,  "  if  all  the  personal  allusions  in 
the  Epistles  of  the  New  Testament  were  gathered  to- 
gether, we  should  fail  utterly  to  obtain  from  them  a 
picture  of  the  Man."  The  world  was  converted,  not  by 
the  example  of  Christ's  life,  but  by  the  dogmas  of  His 
Incarnation,  of  His  essential  Divinity  and  His  essential 
Humanity,  of  His  atoning  death,  of  His  all-sufficient 
sacrifice,  of  His  Resurrection  and  Ascension,  and  of 
His  second  coming  again  to  judge  the  quick  and  the 


338  The  Primary  Ends  of  the  Gospel. 

dead.  In  these  lay  the  core,  the  substance,  the  pre- 
vailing power,  of  the  first  preaching  of  the  Gospel. 
How  strangely,  how  widely,  how  disastrously,  is  this 
lesson  now  forgotten!  Quite  another  gospel  is  the 
fashion  and  the  craving  of  these  days ;  and  we  see  how 
this  gospel  is  walled  in  and  driven  back  in  impotence 
by  doubt,  by  worldliness,  by  wickedness.  The  essayist 
of  morals,  of  sentiment,  of  reason,  is  a  common  presence. 
He  charms  by  his  literary  finish,  by  his  grace  of  diction, 
and  by  his  richness  and  freshness  of  ideas.  "  He  never 
shocks  or  frightens  men,  for  his  gospel  is  that  of 
modeiix  culture.  So  it  was  with  Menander  and  the 
genteel  comedy  of  the  Greeks  and  Romans,  when  the 
stage  had  given  up  all  idea  of  reforming  mankind,  and 
confined  itself  to  pictures  of  human  life.  Great  lessons, 
no  doubt,  are  to  be  gained  by  such  portraiture,  and  by 
the  graceful  but  forcible  exposure  of  the  weakness  and 
folly  of  men."  But  such  is  not  the  work  of  the  Clergy 
as  leaders  of  earnest  men,  or  as  striving  for  the  regen- 
eration of  indi\idual  and  social  life ;  and,  when  their 
divine  function  shrivels  up  to  such  a  task,  it  becomes 
simply  a  human  power  wearing  a  heavenly  mask. 

II.  But  this  brings  me  to  another  angle  of  thought, 
the  second  division  of  my  subject ;  which  will  lead  me 
to  consider  the  duty  of  the  Clergy,  if  they  are  to  ad- 
vance their  influence,  to  fall  back  more  definitely  on 
the  primary  ends  of  the  Gospel  and  on  the  primary 
motives  to  its  propagation.  Our  Lord  never  merged  the 
primary  in  the  secondary  aims  of  his  work :  he  held  all 
parts  of  it  in  their  due  place ;  nothing  in  excess,  noth- 
ing in  defect.     What  was  fundamental,  unchangeable, 


The  Primary  Ends  of  the  Gospel.  339 

universal,  was  uniformly  lifted  high  above  what  was 
accidental,  transient,  and  local.  He  was  the  light  of  the 
world ;  and  He  saw  all  things  in  the  light  which  presents 
them  as  they  are,  not  as  they  seem.  "  He  always  struck 
through  the  external  forms  of  evil,  to  the  moral  root. 
He  always  passed  on  to  the  spiritual  end  to  which 
external  betterment  points.  He  was  no  reformer  play- 
ing about  the  outward  forms  of  evil,  —  hunger,  poverty, 
disease,  oppression,  —  giving  ease  and  relief  for  the 
moment.  He  does,  indeed,  deal  with  these ;  but  he 
puts  under  his  work  a  moral  foundation,  and  crowns 
it  with  a  spiritual  consummation.  Dealing  with  these. 
He  was  all  the  while  inserting  the  spiritual  principle 
which  he  calls  faith,  and  striking  at  the  sin  which  is 
at'  the  root,  and  at  the  misery  which  is  its  fruitage." 
An  incident,  common  in  its  details  and  surroundings, 
was  the  occasion  of  an  act  that  practically  illustrated 
the  chief  purpose  that  brought  Him  into  the  world. 
A  man  sick  of  the  palsy  was  laid  at  His  feet  to  be 
healed ;  and  when  the  bystanders  expected  Him  to  say 
first,  "  Be  whole  of  thy  plague,"  He  said  first,  "  Thy 
sins  be  forgiven  thee."  ^  It  was  as  though  He  had  said, 
I  am  not  unwilling  to  heal  all  manner  of  sickness  and 
disease,  but  these  in  their  order.  Souls  must  be  touched 
first,  afterward  bodies.  I  am  come  before  all  else  to 
deal  with  sin  and  with  sinners ;  to  offer  pardon  and 
release  to  guilty  and  dying  men ;  to  publish  the  gift  of 
eternal  life,  and  to  place  within  human  reach  the  means 
of  attaining  it ;  to  do  what  I  can  for  the  life  that  now 
is,  but  most  of  all,  and  before  all,  for  the  life  to  come. 
1  St.  Mark  ii.  3-12. 


340  The  Primary  Ends  of  the  Gospel. 

It  would  seem  as  though  mankmd  had  seen  and  heard 
enough  of  the  gospel  to  save  them  from  forgetting  what 
it  was  chiefly  intended  to  do ;  and  yet  in  every  age  they 
have  forgotten  it,  and  in  this  age  they  are  especially 
inclined  to  do  so.  It  is  curious  to  observe  among  our- 
selves how  much  of  the  praise  bestowed  upon  Chris- 
tianity arises  from  its  supposed  great  services  to  some 
of  the  temporal  interests  of  society ;  and,  on  the  other 
hand,  how  much  of  the  blame  put  on  it  is  due  to  its 
alleged  failure  to  help  others.  The  question  that  presses 
is  not  what  it  can  do  for  and  in  some  distant  world,  but 
what  it  can  do  now  and  here.  "  Seek  first  the  kingdom 
of  God  and  his  righteousness,  and  all  other  things  shall 
be  added  unto  you,"  does  not  answer  it,  for  the  simple 
reason  that  mankind  want  "  the  other  things,"  but  not 
"  the  kingdom  of  God."  Two  causes  have  helped  on  this 
feeling  of  late. 

1.  The  materialistic  temper  of  the  time  inclines  men 
to  value  all  things  according  to  their  immediate  and 
tangible  uses.  Religion,  to  be  worth  much,  must  prove 
its  capacity  to  be  utilized  in  providing  for  needs  of  which 
the  average  of  the  race  are  most  keenly  conscious.  The 
cry  is  for  a  gospel  of  comfort,  success,  material  achieve- 
ment ;  a  gospel  that  builds  better  houses,  gives  higher 
wages,  grows  more  wheat,  coins  more  gold,  secures 
quicker  transit  for  thoughts  and  cargoes,  establishes 
more  schools  to  sharpen  and  brace  the  intellect  in  its 
struggle  with  the  forces  of  nature  and  society ;  a  gos- 
pel of  the  sinews  and  the  brain,  of  knowledge,  wealth, 
and  empire.  And  if,  among  the  thronging  crowds,  some 
chance  to  be  poor  and  sick  and  forsaken,  dropping  off 


The  Primary  Ends  of  the  Gospel.  341 

into  the  bruised,  bleeding,  starving  rubbish  which  mod- 
ern Ufe  piles  up  along  the  highway  of  its  progress,  then 
it  is  desirable  to  have  a  gospel  follow  after,  as  the  Good 
Samaritan,  with  a  liberal  stock  of  oil  and  wine ;  with 
Dorcas  societies  to  clothe  paupers ;  with  refuges  and 
reformatories,  hospitals  and  orphanages,  nurseries  and 
dispensaries,  and  alms-chests;  with  all  the  various  minis- 
tries of  help  and  consolation.  But  as  for  the  spiritual 
rock  whence  living  waters  flow ;  as  for  the  spiritual 
manna  for  hungry  souls ;  as  for  the  spiritual  home  for 
those  who  account  themselves  pilgrims  and  strangers 
here ;  as  for  the  Christ  who,  through  His  Church,  must 
needs  press  incessantly  certain  dogmas  about  sin  and 
guilt  and  punishment,  about  the  saved  and  the  lost, 
about  faith,  repentance,  righteousness,  and  the  judg- 
ment to  come,  —  as  to  all  these,  if  they  may  not  be 
turned  over  to  the  visionai-y  few  who  cannot  abide  the 
heat  and  dust  of  the  race  for  the  prizes  of  the  world, 
then  the  less  said  about  them  the  better. 

2.  The  second  cause  I  referred  to  has  ai'isen  from 
the  well-meant  eff"orts  of  the  advocates  and  defenders  of 
Christianity  to  commend  it  to  popular  approval  on  the 
ground  of  its  practical  beneficence.  Themselves  some- 
what weary  of  reciting,  and  believing  the  world  to  be 
weary  of  hearing,  about  the  external  and  internal  evi- 
dences ordinarily  adduced  to  establish  the  Divine  origin 
of  the  Christian  religion,  they  have  in  late  years  come 
to  rely  more  upon  the  good  things  it  has  done  for  man 
on  the  temporal  and  social  side  of  his  life.  It  is  not 
strange  that  many  of  us  should  seek  to  make  the  most 
of  this  line  of  argument  amid  the  angi-y  cross-currents 


342  The  Primary  Ends  of  the  Gospel. 

of  living  unbelief.  "  The  enthusiasm  of  humanity  "  is 
just  now  one  of  the  catch-phrases  among  the  masses. 
They  admire  not  only  the  fruits  of  this  enthusiasm,  but 
the  enthusiasm  itself  as  they  understand  it.  What 
attests  love  to  God  is  not  of  so  much  matter,  for  that 
is  abstract,  remote,  unseen :  the  whole  stress  is  laid  on 
love  to  man,  the  visible  and  concrete  expression  of  the 
moral  sympathy  that  blossoms  into  helpful  mercies  and 
humanities. 

Now,  so  entirely  and  beyond  all  parallel  was  Christ 
the  exemplar  of  this  enthusiasm,  that  without  Him  it 
would  never  have  had  a  name  among  men.  And  so 
entirely,  moreover,  and  beyond  all  rivalry,  does  the 
Church  of  Christ  take  the  lead  in  this  enthusiasm,  that 
it  has  been  quite  in  the  line  of  our  feeling  and  duty  to 
point  the  gainsay er  to  the  very  sort  of  evidence  which, 
from  the  habit  of  his  mind,  would  be  most  likely  to  tell 
upon  him.  Thus  we  have  been  tempted  to  turn  aside 
from  the  old  paths  of  testimony,  into  new  ones  promis- 
ing a  shorter  cut  to  popular  conviction.  And  thus,  too, 
we  have  been  tempted  to  say  less  about  what  the  Gospel 
claims  from  ftian,  and  more  about  what  the  Gospel  does 
for  man  in  this  life ;  less  about  the  God-ward  and  more 
about  the  man-ward  aspects  of  the  faith ;  less  about 
eternal  redemption  in  Christ  Jesus,  with  its  corre- 
sponding implications  of  human  sinfulness  and  human 
helplessness,  and  more  about  the  intelligence,  freedom, 
power,  and  dignity  of  human  nature.  There  are  signs 
of  the  times  which  admonish  us  that  we  have  already 
drifted  perilously  far  on  this  tendency  of  thought  and 
speech.    It  may  well  alarm  any  Minister  of  Christ,  to 


The  Primary  Ends  of  the  Gospel.  343 

be  told,  that,  while  he  is  engaged  in  elaborate  demon- 
strations of  the  temporal  beneficence  of  Christianity,  he 
may,  by  his  one-sided  leaning,  be  putting  in  jeopardy  its 
most  essential  and  distinctive  message  to  man. 

This  tendency  does  harm  in  many  ways.  For  the 
present  I  shall  notice  only  two,  and  both  these  relate  to 
the  Priesthood.  Let  me  preface  what  I  have  to  say  in 
both  directions,  by  stating  two  or  three  axioms.  Had 
there  been  in  man  no  disease  himself  could  not  cure, 
there  had  been  no  remedy  from  God.  If  the  disease 
goes  down  to  the  very  roots  of  his  being,  sending  its 
poison,  or  the  fruit  of  it,  into  every  moral  and  physical 
tissue,  equally  deep  and  wide  and  searching  must  be  the 
remedy.  As  part  of  the  means  for  bringing  the  remedy 
into  contact  with  the  disease,  God  instituted  the  Chris- 
tian Priesthood.  This  Priesthood  is  of  account  only  as 
the  disease  is  real,  and  the  remedy  is  real ;  only  as  the 
disease  is  hopeless  apart  from  the  remedy,  and  the 
remedy  is  absolutely  necessary  to  the  healing  of  the  dis- 
ease. Now,  to  weaken  and  dwarf  the  Priesthood,  you 
have  only  to  weaken  and  dwarf  either  the  disease  or  the 
remedy.  If  you  can  show  that  the  disease  is  not  hope- 
less when  left  to  itself,  it  follows  that  the  remedy,  how- 
ever good  or  well-meant,  is  not  necessary ;  and  to  the 
full  extent  that  the  one  is  not  so  bad  and  the  other  not 
so  necessary  as  they  have  been  made  to  appear,  to  the 
same  extent,  the  need,  and,  if  the  need,  the  influence 
of  the  Priesthood  is  impaired.  Now,  these  are  all  seH- 
evident  propositions, —  so  self-evident  that  I  have  not 
hesitated  to  call  them  axioms.  If  they  are,  there  can 
be  no  risk  of  unsoundness  in  building  upon  them.    Now, 


344  The  Primary  Ends  of  the  Gospel. 

I  hold  that  the  tendency  ah-eady  dwelt  upon,  to  substi- 
tute the  secondary  for  the  primary  motives  and  aims  of 
the  Gospel  in  the  way  and  in  the  degree  I  have  alleged, 
bears  directly  upon  both  man's  disease  and  God's  rem- 
edy, and  through  these  upon  the  office  and  work  of  the 
Christian  Ministiy. 

First,  let  us  examine  its  view  of  the  disease.  It  is 
doubtful  what  sin  is,  and  it  is  doubtful  what  may  be  its 
remote  consequences  in  the  way  of  judgment  and  pen- 
alty. It  is  certain,  however,  that  it  hinders,  disturbs, 
and  imbitters  human  life.  It  is  certain  that  its  near 
consequences  are  painful  and  destructive,  and  that 
Christianity,  so  far  as  it  helps  us  to  cope  with  them 
and  with  their  uncertain  cause  in  the  soul,  is  a  veiy 
needful  auxiliary.  But,  according  to  the  line  of  battle 
here  drawn  up,  our  Lord  blundered  in  striking  at  the 
sin  before  he  struck  at  the  palsy  of  the  sick  man. 
What  lie  did,  and  what  the  disciples  of  this  other 
gospel  would  have  asked  Him  to  do,  throw  into  the 
sharpest  outline  His  estimate  of  sin,  as  compared  with 
the  estimate  of  all,  of  every  age,  who  have  been  of  this 
way  of  thinking.  He,  and  the  inspired  men  that  spoke 
in  His  name,  exhausted  the  energy  and  emphasis  of 
language  in  describing  it.  No  imagery  was  too  intense 
or  too  dreadful  to  deepen  the  sense  of  its  power  and 
guilt  in  the  conscience  and  the  imagination.  It  is  alien- 
ation from  God,  the  Giver  of  life ;  it  is  the  corruption 
of  the  life  God  gave ;  it  is  bondage,  darkness,  death. 
The  blight  and  the  mildew  are  as  nothing  beside  its 
power  to  curse  and  destroy.  It  kills  body  and  soul ;  it 
is  war  within  and  misery  without ;  it  is  a  fearful  look- 


The  Trimary  Ends  of  the  Gospel.  345 

ing-for  of  fiery  indignation  and  wrath.  None  other 
than  the  Son  of  God  can  bring  deliverance  to  its 
captives,  or  sight  to  those  whom  it  has  made  blind, 
or  light  to  its  darkness,  or  healing  to  its  curse,  or  life 
to  its  dead.  The  water  of  regeneration  cleanses,  the 
blood  of  a  Divine  sacrifice  washes,  the  fire  of  infinite 
love  purifies,  the  very  Judge  of  heaven  and  earth  takes 
His  throne,  with  ten  thousand  of  His  angels  marshalled 
around  Him,  to  pronounce  its  final  doom.  Now,  all 
these  references  to  sin  may  be  thinned  away  into  ex- 
aggerated metaphors  of  the  Oriental  mind,  or  resolved 
into  so  many  phases  of  a  morbid  anatomy  of  the  darker 
facts  of  life.  Treat  them  as  we  may,  they  are  undeni- 
ably part  and  parcel  of  our  Lord's  conception  of  sin,  or, 
rather,  of  His  mode  of  conveying  that  conception  to  us. 
And  we  may  well  suppose  that  this,  like  other  Divine 
conceptions,  lost,  not  gained,  in  intensity  and  depth  by 
putting  on  the  limitations  of  human  language.  While 
true,  absolutely  true  to  the  thing  itself, — the  moral 
disease  of  man,  —  it  magnified  the  remedy  both  as  to  its 
efficacy  and  its  necessity,  and  with  these  magnified  the 
means,  the  Priesthood  among  them,  for  carrying  the 
remedy  into  effect. 

On  the  other  hand,  compare  with  this  the  concep- 
tions of  sin,  and  of  the  instrumentalities  (notably  the 
Priesthood)  appointed  to  represent  the  Christ  in  deal- 
ing with  it,  embodied  in  all  secondary-motive  theories 
of  Christianity.  There  is  the  evolution  conception,  that 
the  miseries  of  sin  are  only  the  growing-pains  of  life 
as  it  breaks  through  the  limitations  imposed  upon  it  by 
imperfect  development ;  and  that  what  we  call  sin  is  in 


346  The  Primary  Ends  of  the  Gospel. 

itself  only  another  name  for  such  development.  Next, 
there  is  the  notion  which  has  survived  the  mass  of  Pla- 
tonic speculation,  and  continued  to  hold  sway  over  minds 
that  by  intellectual  instinct  are  inclined  to  trace  the 
ills  of  life  to  defects  of  knowledge  rather  than  defects 
of  will  and  moral  sense,  —  the  notion  that  sin  is  the 
child  of  ignorance,  and  consequently  that  man  is  a 
sinner  only  so  far  as  he  fails  to  know  the  truth. 
Finally,  we  have  the  theory,  so  much  in  favor  with 
minds  of  a  pantheistic  turn,  that  evil  is  only  good  in 
the  making;  that  things  are  good  or  evil,  as  they 
chance  to  be  related  to  one  another  and  to  ourselves ; 
that  the  distinctions  between  them  are  unreal  and 
fugitive ;  and  that  our  own  liberty  of  choosing  the  one 
rather  than  the  other  is  at  bottom  a  delusion,  —  a  drop 
of  water  shut  up  within  walls  of  crystal,  moving,  but 
powerless  to  get  over  them.  For  sin  thus  conceived,  — 
in  the  first  and  last  of  these  notions,  emptied  of  its  guilt 
by  first  emptying  the  soul  of  its  responsibility  under 
the  implications  of  fatalism  and  a  confused  whui  and 
jumble  of  all  being ;  in  the  second,  attenuated  into  a 
question  of  knowing  or  not  knowing  what  is  truest  and 
best,  —  for  sin  thus  conceived,  surely  Heaven  need  not 
have  stu-red  itself  to  find  a  remedy.  The  cross,  the 
blood,  the  agony,  the  darkness  of  Calvary,  were  a  super- 
fluous tragedy,  and  the  Church  of  God,  its  Word,  its 
Sacraments,  and  its  Priesthood,  are  only  logically  and 
consistently  treated,  when  they  are  declared  non-essential 
to  the  salvation  of  man,  and  transient  adjuncts  to  the 
mechanism  of  human  progress.  Let  the  Clergy  of  to- 
day beware  how  they  borrow  "jewels  of  thought"  from 


The  Primary  Ends  of  the  Gospel.  347 

this  quarter,  or  transplant  from  it  into  their  own  teach- 
ing what  much  of  our  literature  for  the  people  parades 
as  so  many  precious  mosaics  of  philosophical  breadth 
and  intelligence.  Friendship  with  all  these  notions  of 
moral  evil  is  enmity  with  God,  and  in  the  end  treason 
to  the  Gospel  of  His  Eternal  Son. 

Thus  the  Gospel  as  a  remedy,  with  all  its  affiliated 
agencies,  the  Priesthood  included,  is  weakened  and 
dwarfed  by  shallow  notions  of  sin,  the  moral  disease  of 
humanity.  A  like  result  may  be  worked  out,  starting 
from  the  other  side,  and  beginning  with  the  remedy  as 
an  objective  reality.  This  can  and  will  be  divided  and 
impaired,  and  so  with  all  that  is  bound  up  with  it,  just 
so  far  as,  in  teaching  it,  we  substitute  its  secondary 
ends  and  motives  for  its  primary ;  its  variable  and  acci- 
dental aims,  for  those  which  are  immutable  and  uni- 
versal ;  what  it  may  and  can  and  ought  to  do  for  the 
life  that  now  is,  for  what  it  must  do  before  all  else  for 
the  life  to  come  ;  individual  amelioration,  for  individual 
regeneration ;  temporal  beneficence,  social  blessings,  for 
the  law  of  righteousness  that  speaks  for  a  holy  God,  for 
the  everlasting  sacrifice  that  taketh  away  the  sins  of  the 
world,  and  for  a  spiritual  salvation  of  man  that  embraces 
eternity.  After  an  earnest  and  prolonged  study  of  the 
current  on  which  our  time  is  moving,  I  am  more  and 
more  persuaded  that  it  is  impossible  to  emphasize  too 
strongly  the  duty  and  the  danger  of  the  Christian 
Ministry  touching  these  issues.  If  it  would  be  a  power 
more  than  it  is  now,  here  it  must  concentrate  its  fire, 
here  it  must  focalize  its  gifts  and  energies.  If  it  would 
have  what  it  offers  to  men,  itself  with  the  rest,  more 


348  The  Primary  Ends  of  the  Gospel. 

profoundly  esteemed,  it  must,  rising  for  the  time  above 
all  lower  things  belonging  to  the  category  of  ecclesias- 
tical organization  and  machinery,  above  vaiying  but 
allowable  schools  of  religious  thought  regarded  as  occa- 
sions of  controversy,  address  itself  to  the  task  of  incul- 
cating a  Gospel  whose  burden  is  the  story  of  Christ 
crucified ;  of  the  life  hidden  with  Him  in  God ;  of  the 
Holy  Ghost  as  the  Giver  of  this  life ;  of  the  Church 
as  its  home  and  guide ;  of  the  Sacraments,  the  one  as 
its  initial  channel  and  formal  seal,  the  other  as  its 
perpetual  food;  of  the  Priesthood  as  in  a  vital  and 
essential  sense  the  ordained  representative  of  Christ's 
everlasting  mediation  between  God  and  man.  Nay, 
more :  it  must  not  only  deliver  such  a  Gospel,  but  it 
must  see  that  it  is  duly  formulated,  in  harmony  with 
the  processes  of  our  best  living  thought,  into  a  theology 
which  shall  make  it  systematic,  concrete,  portable  for 
the  practical  uses  of  instruction  and  discipline.  Let  it 
understand,  the  sooner  the  better,  that  its  ofiicial  claims 
will  be  respected,  that  its  pulpits  will  kindle  with  light 
and  throb  with  power,  that  its  altars  will  be  thronged, 
and  its  sanctuaries  vocal  in  evei*y  part  with  praise  and 
adoration,  only  as  it  shall  fall  back  for  its  themes  and 
its  authority  on  the  original  and  fundamental  ends 
and  motives  of  Christ's  coming  into  the  world ;  dealing 
with  sin  in  the  deep,  searching,  awful  way  that  He 
dealt  with  it ;  causing  men  to  feel,  as  with  a  burning 
thirst,  the  need  of  rescue^  by  first  causing  them  to  feel 
the  curse  that  blights,  the  poison  that  corrupts,  the 
death  that  threatens  them. 


LECTURE  XI. 

THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY  AND  "THE  NEW  THEOLOGY." 

I  NOW  propose  to  examine  "  the  New  Theology  "  so 
far  as  to  ascertain  what  helps,  if  any,  it  offers  toward 
lifting  the  Ministry  from  its  present  alleged  low  estate 
to  a  higher  plane  of  influence.  It  is  claimed  that  the 
fresher  lines  of  thought  on  the  problems  of  religion, 
together  with  all  the  recent  side-lights  thrown  upon 
•them  by  the  modern  mind,  have  their  common  centre 
in  this  "  New  Theology."  Its  advocates  seem  to  be 
sanguine  in  their  conviction  that  the  Ministry  would 
enter  upon  a  new  era  of  power  and  usefulness  if  it 
would  ascend  or  descend,  as  the  case  may  be,  to  their 
platform.  It  has  been  their  mission,  we  are  told,  to 
present  to  this  age  the  old  faith  in  a  new  light ;  and 
they  claim  to  have  done  their  work  so  well  that  Chris- 
tianity will  henceforth  be  relieved  of  many  inherited 
obstructions  to  its  growth. 

In  my  second  lecture  I  noted,  at  some  length,  several 
of  the  characteristic  features  of  this  theology,  and  traced 
it  back  to  its  English  founder,  Samuel  Taylor  Coleridge, 
and  to  its  ablest  English  expounder,  F.  D.  Maurice. 
For  our  present  purpose,  we  are  fortunate  in  having, 


350        The  Ministry  and  ''the  New  Theology'' 

beside  those  abroad,  several  distinguished  authorities  at 
home,  whose  erudition  and  ability  entitle  them  to  the 
highest  respect.^ 

The  expounders  of  the  New  Theology  claim,  that,  in 
its  underlying  principles,  it  is  a  "  Renaissance  "  of  the 
earlier  Greek  theology,  which  in  their  judgment  was 
not  only  older,  but  "  more  mature  and  refined  in  the 
expression  of  its  thought,  and  more  true  to  the  idea  of 
Christianity  as  presented  in  the  New  Testament,"  than 
the  theology  of  the  West  as  formulated  by  St.  Augus- 
tine. The  fundamental  principles  of  "the  Renaissance" 
are  supposed  to  embody  the  characteristic  differences 
between  the  two  theologies  of  the  East  and  of  the 
West.  These  differences,  it  is  said,  turned  upon  the 
mode  of  God's  presence  in  the  world  and  in  the  Church, 
and  upon  the  condition  of  man  as  requiring  the  inter- 
vention of  a  supernatural  redemption.^  Starting  from 
these  two  points,  the  two  theologies  diverged  through- 
out their  entire  course.  Claiming  to  follow  the  early 
Greek  theology,  "  the  Renaissance  "  holds  that  God  in 
Christ  is  immanent  in  humanity  as  a  continuous,  living 
process,  as  "  a  Divine  and  ever-present  teacher  speak- 
ing to  men  made  in  the  Divine  image  and  constituted 
for  the  truth ;  while  reason,  conscience,  and  experience 
were  the  ordained  and  competently  endowed  recipients 

r 

1  Rev.  Elisha  Mulford,  LL.D.,  The  Republic  of  God;  Rev.  Newman 
Smyth,  D  D.,  Old  Faiths  in  New  Lights,  etc.;  Rev.  Theodore  T.  Hun- 
ger, D.D.,  The  Freedom  of  Faith,  etc  ;  Rev.  Professor  Allen,  D.D.,  The 
Theological  Renaissance,  etc. ;  Hon.  and  Rev.  W.  H.  Fremantle,  Canon 
of  Canterbury,  The  Grospelof  the  Secular  Life 

2  The  Theological  Renaissance  of  the  Nineteenth  Century:  Professor 
A.  V.  G.  Allen,  D.D. 


The  Ministry  and  "the  New  Theology"        351 

of  the  message."  This  more  intimate  and  omnipresent 
immanence  of  God  is  constantly  set  forth  as  the  govern- 
ing idea  of  the  New  Theology.  Indeed,  one  of  its 
expounders  has,  from  this  standpoint,  undertaken  to 
re-write  the  history  of  theology,  considering  it  alone  as 
quite  sufficient  to  account  for  neai'ly  all  the  departures, 
in  the  course  of  the  Christian  centuries,  from  pure  and 
primitive  Christianity. 

The  early  Latin  theology,  as  formulated  by  Tertul- 
lian,  Cyprian,  and  Augustine,  is  charged  not  only  with 
gross  anthropomorphism  in  its  conception  of  Deity,  —  a 
fault  from  which,  it  is  said,  the  Greek  ideal  was  exempt, 
—  but  with  conceiving  of  God  as  extra-mundane  and  far 
off  from  man,  communicating  with  the  world  and  the 
Church  only  through  agencies  of  formal  and  arbitrary 
appointment,  and  setting  forth  a  Christ  who,  so  far 
from  being  ever  present  to  guide  the  education  of 
human  souls,  "left  behind  only  a  last  will  and  testament, 
of  which  the  Episcopate  was  the  executor  and  adminis- 
trator." Thus  the  theology  of  the  West,  we  are  told, 
came  to  regard  revelation  as  a  mechanical  method  of 
Divine  communication,  and  to  treat  it  as  a  deposit  em- 
bodied in  a  rule  of  faith  whose  integrity  was  assured 
by  the  Church's  witness.  Thus,  too,  we  are  told,  Latin 
thought  changed  the  Sacraments,  from  symbols  of  a 
universal  Divine  process,  into  rites  possessed  of  a  magi- 
cal character,  and  of  exclusive  power  to  convey  God's 
grace  to  men.  By  the  same  cause,  moreover,  it  is 
affirmed  that  the  New-Testament  doctrine  of  eternal  life 
was  so  disturbed  and  corrupted  that  it  ceased  to  be  "  an 
ethical  and  spiritual  relationship  with  God,"  and  became 


352         The  Ministry  and  ^Hhe  New  Theology." 

a  synonyme  "  for  endless  duration  of  existence  in  a  state 
of  bliss  or  in  a  state  of  misery."  It  is.  admitted,  that, 
after  the  middle  of  the  fifth  century.  Eastern  theology 
fell  away  from  its  first  estate,  under  the  influence  of 
Neo-Platonism  and  some  Gnostic  systems  of  theosophy. 
Now,  without  attempting  any  detailed  argument  on 
the  subject  (our  space  does  not  allow  it),  we  affirm,  as 
the  result  of  our  reading  and  inquiry,  that  there  was 
no  root  diff'erence  between  the  early  Greeks  and  Latins 
in  their  conception  of  the  Divine  immanence.  With 
the  plain  and  emphatic  teachings  of  Holy  Scripture  on 
the  subject  equally  open  to  both,  it  is  most  unlikely 
that  any  such  radical  difference  should  have  been  de- 
veloped ;  and  certainly  there  is  no  satisfactory  evidence 
that  it  was.  Both  held  and  taught  substantially  the 
same  truth ;  the  Greeks  j  because  of  their  peculiar 
intellectual  environment,  only  more  strongly  and  fully. 
They  differed,  not  as  to  the  freeness  and  efficacy  of 
God's  grace,  only  another  name  for  his  supernatural 
immanence,  but  as  to  the  character  and  extent  of  the 
means  ordained  of  God  for  dispensing  it  to  man ;  the 
Greeks  dwelling  more  upon  the  grace  itself,  the  Latins 
accepting  the  grace  as  a  fact  beyond  dispute,  and  insist- 
ing more  upon  the  means  by  which  it  is  made  operative, 
because  these  were  constantly  open  to  dispute,  to  perver- 
sion, and  neglect.  "  The  Renaissance  "  is  not  as  sound 
on  this  very  fundamental  question  as  the  early  Greek 
thought  which  it;  professes  to  follow.  If  the  early 
Greek  could  not,  in  spite  of  its  struggles,  altogether 
emancipate  itself  from  the  philosophical  drift  of  its  day, 
this  has  yielded  itself  without  a  struggle  to  Hegelian 


The  Ministry  and  ''the  New  Theology''        353 

speculation  on  the  universe  and  its  immanent  Deity. 
Inspired  by  this  school  of  speculative  thought,  rather 
than  by  the  teaching  of  the  New  Testament  or  of  the 
sub-apostolic  age,  it  makes  the  historic  Church  one 
thing  and  the  Body  of  Christ  another ;  in  fact,  knows 
no  Church  of  Christ  in  history,  save  the  fluctuating 
organization  evolved  by  the  Christ-idea  out  of  the  ever- 
changing  life  of  the  ages.  In  keeping  with  this  view  of 
the  Church  is  its  view  of  the  Holy  Scriptures  and  of  the 
Sacraments,  and,  indeed,  of  all  kindred  means  of  grace 
of  Divine  appointment.  In  fact,  so  radical  and  sweeping 
is  its  doctrine  of  God's  immanence  in  the  Church  and 
the  individual  soul,  as  well  as  in  the  processes  of  nature 
and  of  history  (the  revival  of  which  doctrine  in  modern 
theology  it  asserts  as  its  great  distinction),  that  the 
agencies  instituted  by  Christ  to  show  forth  and  give 
effect  to  His  mediatorial  work  seem  to  be  quite  emptied 
of  their  virtue,  and  classed  with  the  supei-fluous  and 
impertinent  mediation  contrivances  which  had  their 
origin  in  the  Neo-Platonic  and  Gnostic  heathenism  of 
the  fifth  century,  —  a  type  of  heathenism  that  "  the 
Renaissance "  declares  became,  under  the  disguise  of 
a  Christian  dress,  the  actual  basis,  for  many  centuries 
after,  of  Christian  thought  in  all  parts  of  the  Church. 
The  inevitable  logical  outcome  of  this  teaching,  should 
it  find  any  considerable  currency,  will  be  another  and 
intenser  phase  of  mysticism  in  theology  and  of  Quaker- 
ism in  practical  religion.  If  this  be  so,  the  bearing  of 
"  the  Renaissance "  on  the  authority  and  work  of  the 
Christian  Priesthood  is  too  evident  for  comment. 

Again :  professing  to  move  in  the  track  of  the  early 


354        The  Ministry  and  "the  New  Theology'' 

thought  of  the  East,  the  "  Renaissance  "  view  of  human 
nature  is  quite  as  much  open  to  doubt  and  suspicion  as 
its  view  of  the  Church,  the  Sacraments,  the  Priesthood, 
etc.  When  it  tells  us  that  St.  Augustine's  dark  and 
tragic  thinking  on  man  was  suggested  by  the  dissolving 
fabric  of  social  and  political  life  in  his  day,  and  the 
terrible  disorder  consequent  upon  it ;  when  it  treats  his 
doctrine  of  original  sin  as  a  sort  of  spectral  horror 
thrown  off  by  a  mighty  genius  in  a  nightmare  of  logical 
compulsion  and  ethical  despau*,  the  vriser  and  calmer 
theologians  of  the  East  meanwhile,  it  is  said,  "  protesting 
against  its  dishonor  to  God  and  injustice  to  man,"  — 
our  curiosity,  rather  than  our  fear,  is  excited  as  to  the 
terminus  ad  quern  of  such  criticism  on  the  founder  of 
the  theology  of  the  West.  So  far  as  we  can  see,  it  has 
more  to  say  of  God's  image  in  man,  than  of  the  effect 
upon  that  image  produced  by  the  fall ;  of  man's  capacity 
for  righteousness,  than  of  his  depravity  and  corruption; 
of  his  inherent  ability  to  rise  from  his  natural  estate, 
than  of  supernatural  grace  to  enable  him  to  do  so. 
As  might  be  expected,  its  profound  dissent  from  the 
Augustinian  doctrine  of  man  carries  it  so  far  in  the 
opposite  direction,  that  only  a  shadowy  line  seems,  at 
some  points,  to  divide  it  from  the  well-known  teaching 
of  Pelagius.  If  it  was  the  fault  of  St.  Augustine  that 
he  built  up  theology  too  much  on  absolute  decrees  and 
original  sin,  it  is  not  less  the  fault  of  this  "  new  depart- 
ure "  that  it  builds  on  a  conception  of  God's  immanence 
that  has  in  it  a  decidedly  pantheistic  flavor,  and  on  a 
conception  of  man  that  makes  more  of  his  perfectibility 
than  of  his  sinfulness,  more  of  his  union  with  God  as  a 


The  Ministry  and  ^^the  New  Theology."        355 

fact  already  accomplished  by  the  Incarnation  of  Christ, 
than  of  his  alienation  from  God  as  a  fact  of  experience 
generally  operative  in  spite  of  the  new  life  offered 
through  the  Incarnation.  If  we  have  not  mistaken  the 
New  Theology  in  its  doctrine  of  human  nature,  this 
side  of  it  will  be  no  more  favorable  than  that  already 
commented  upon,  to  the  deeper  work  and  higher  claims 
of  the  Ministry.  It  is  its  often-expressed  wish,  to  be 
regarded,  not  as  seeking  to  introduce  any  novelty  into 
the  domain  of  living  theological  thought,  but  as  aiming 
to  revive  what  was  most  healthy  and  true  in  the  oldest 
Christian  thinking  of  the  East.  Freely  as  it  may  have 
ranged  over,  carefully  as  it  may  have  studied  that  think- 
ing, what  it  has  actually  given  us  is  mostly  traceable  to 
two  sources,  the  mere  naming  of  which  will  go  far 
toward  determining  the  character  of  the  gift.  I  refer 
to  the  school  of  Alexandria  as,  for  our  present  purpose, 
chiefly  represented  by  Clement,  the  disciple  of  Pantse- 
nus,  the  first  catechist  of  that  school  of  whom  we  have 
any  knowledge ;  and  the  school  of  Antioch,  the  lineal 
offshoot  of  that  of  Alexandria,  as  represented  by  its 
greatest  light,  Theodore  of  Mopsuestia.  It  seems  to 
have  been  the  mission  —  certainly  it  was  the  aim  —  of 
Clement,  in  the  birthplace  of  Christian  theology,  to 
show  to  the  Greeks,  the  foremost  seekers  after  wis- 
dom, that  Christianity  was  not  to  be  despised  as  a  blind 
faith  that  shunned  the  light  of  reason,  but,  on  the  con- 
trary, that  it  rested  on  a  basis,  and  could  be  made  to 
assume  a  form,  capable  of  scientific  exposition ;  that,  as 
the  highest  and  truest  knowledge,  it  rightfully  claimed 
the  subordination  to  itself  of  aU  other  knowledge ;  that 


356         The  Ministry  and  ''''the  New  Theology." 

it  fulfilled,  enlarged,  and  harmonized  into  a  nobler 
unity,  whatever  was  true  in  all  the  forms  of  the  Gentile 
or  heathen  gnosis.  With  him,  indeed,  the  true  gnosis 
fused  into  one  the  light  of  revelation  and  the  light  of 
reason,  and  issued,  as  its  final  fruit,  in  a  spiritual,  Divine 
life  for  the  soul,  a  life  such  as  the  mystic  in  every  age 
opposes,  as  the  true,  inward  Christianity,  to  a  mere  his- 
torical faith.  He  aimed  to  make  knowing  and  living 
one  process,  science  and  faith  interfluent  aspects  of  the 
same  reality.  To  incorporate  in  a  rationally  satisfactory 
shape  the  Divine  principle  of  life  imparted  by  Chris- 
tianity, he  sought  to  throw  around  it  the  whole  wealth 
of  human  culture.  His  thought  working  for  this  end 
was,  as  we  now  see  it,  a  marvel  of  energy  and  grasp  and 
versatility.  It  has  never  failed,  and  it  never  will  fail,  to 
attract,  and  largely  to  dominate,  minds  hungering  and 
thu-sting  after  the  same  result  at  which  he  aimed :  there- 
fore it  is  all  the  more  needful  that  we  keep  distinctly 
before  us  those  characteristics  of  it  that  encourage  a  too 
liberal  infusion  of  the  purely  intellectual  element  into 
expositions  of  the  faith  once  delivered. 

As  it  was  Clement's  avowed  purpose  to  conciliate 
philosophy  in  the  interest  of  religion,  he  did  not  hesitate 
to  avail  himself  with  the  utmost  freedom  of  the  current 
philosophical  tools  of  his  day.  The  misfortune  was,  that 
he  was  not  always  their  master,  but  sometimes  their  ser- 
vant. While  far  from  intending  to  be  a  rationalist  in 
the  modern  sense,  he  not  seldom  dipped  his  logic  in  the 
many-colored  dyes  of  rationalism.  While  seeking  to 
place  the  contents  of  faith  only  in  the  clear  light  of 
consciousness,  and  to  develop  the  unity  of  the  theoreti 


The  Ministry  and  ^^the  New  Theology.''        357 

cal  and  practical,  the  objective  and  subjective  elements 
of  Christianity,  he,  in  adopting  a  form  for  the  expres- 
sion of  his  meaning  supplied  by  the  Neo-Platonic  doc- 
trine concerning  the  identity  of  subject  and  object,  of 
the  voovv  and  the  votttoV,  was  carried  perilously  far  out 
on  the  sea  of  speculation,  and  merged  the  authority  of 
the  Divine  Aoyo?  too  much  in  that  of  Gentile  thought. 
Confident  as  he  was  of  the  completeness  and  sufficiency 
of  the  doctrine  of  our  Saviour  as  the  power  and  wisdom 
of  God,  he  could  not  refrain  from  making  that  doctrine 
work  in  the  harness  and  accept  the  trammels  of  Grecian 
philosophy.  The  ultimate  outcome  of  this  style  of 
handling  truth  was  a  conception  of  Christian  doctiine, 
not  as  a  7rapa8oo-ts,  a  transmitted,  unchanging  deposit, 
but  as  a  developing  process,  going  forth  from  the  Chris- 
tian consciousness,  and  exhibiting  itself,  with  more  or 
less  purity,  in  all  forms  within  and  without  the  Church. 
Practically  this  view,  when  pushed  to  its  logical  conclu- 
sion, enthroned  reason  above  revelation  as  the  test  and 
measure  of  truth,  —  substantially  the  veiy  thing  done 
by  "  the  Renaissance "  in  its  attempted  reconstruction 
of  theology  in  order  to  put  it  en  rapport  with  modem 
thought.  Thus  it  will  be  found  that  this  new  Christian 
gnosis  not  merely  reproduces,  but,  under  the  lead  of 
Hegelian  philosophy,  expands  and  intensifies  the  ration- 
alistic tendency  of  the  old  Alexandrian  gnosis. 

But  apparently  the  "  Renaissance "  theology  has 
drawn  more  freely  upon  the  school  of  Antioch  than 
upon  that  of  Alexandria.  Of  the  two  schools,  that  of 
Antioch  was  the  bolder,  more  energetic,  and  versatile  in 
general  intellectual  activity,  and  especially  in  BibUcal 


358         The  Ministry  and  ''the  New  Theology y 

and  theological  studies,  as  well  as  in  handling  the  issues 
raised  between  the  philosophy  and  Christianity  of  that 
day.  The  Alexandrian  school  stood  alone  in  Egypt: 
it  was  the  sole  centre  of  learning  and  thought  for  the 
whole  patriai'chate.  Authority  measurably  held  in 
check  the  spirit  of  inquiry  and  criticism  when  inclined 
to  extravagance.  But  Syria  and  Asia  Minor  abounded 
in  populous  and  luxurious  cities,  each  with  its  own 
schools  for  the  cultivation  of  Greek  letters  and  art,  and 
many  of  them  with  their  own  schools  of  sacred  learning, 
working  on  quite  independently  of  any  common  bond 
of  authority.  Whatever  the  cause,  it  is  certain  that 
speculations  for  which  Origen  was  banished  from  Alex- 
andria were  taken  up  and  pursued  with  impunity  in 
many  of  the  schools  of  Syria  and  Asia  Minor.^  By  the 
middle  of  the  third  century,  the  school  of  Antioch  had 
attained  a  commanding  celebrity,  and  in  the  person  of 
Theodore  of  Mopsuestia  produced  a  scholar,  critic,  and 
thinker  whose  influence  over  Christendom  for  centuries 
was  second  only  to  that  of  Origen  and  Augustine.  The 
evidences  of  this  influence  are,  we  think,  plainly  dis- 
cernible in  the  New  Theology  of  to-day.  Whatever 
this  theology  may  think  of  other  distinguished  names 
on  the  roll  of  the  early  Greek  theology  with  which  it 
claims  to  be  in  such  cordial  sympathy,  or  however  it 
may  have  consulted  their  writings,  it  can  scarcely  be 
doubted  that  the  foremost  name  among  them  all  has 
excited  its  warmest  admiration,  and  left  upon  it  the 
profoundest  impression.  And,  what  is  very  significant, 
the  fact  that  this  leader  of  the  Antiochene  school,  with 
1  Newman's  Arians  of  the  Fourth  Century,  passim. 


The  Ministry  and  ''''the  New  Theology."        359 

his  writings,  was  condemned  by  the  fifth  (Ecumenical 
Council,  and  the  closely  related  fact  that  the  books  of 
this  chief  doctor  of  Antioch,  with  those  of  his  master 
Diodorus,  translated  into  Syriac  and  into  Persian,  were, 
beyond  all  else,  the  immediate  instruments  of  the  for- 
mation of  the  great  Nestorian  school  and  Church  in 
farther  Asia,  do  not  seem  to  have  operated  to  his 
prejudice  with  the  ISew  Theology. 

It  is  of  moment  to  recall  in  this  connection  some  of 
the  characteristic  teachings  of  this  famous  doctor.  In 
Biblical  interpretation  he  anticipated  the  free  handling 
of  the  Holy  Scriptures  by  the  "Higher  Criticism"  of 
our  day.  He  diluted  inspiration  to  such  a  degree  as  to 
make  it  easy  to  include,  in  the  same  catalogue  with  the 
writers  of  the  Old  and  New  Testaments,  the  most  emi- 
nent writers  of  Pagan  antiquity.  He  maintained  that 
the  real  sense  of  the  Scriptures  was  to  be  determined, 
not  by  the  scope  of  a  Divine  Intelligence,  but  by  what 
was  in  the  minds  of  the  human  organs  of  inspiration. 
Not  content  with  discarding  the  allegorizing  method  of 
the  school  of  Origen,  he  insisted  absolutely  upon  the 
literal,  one-sense  meaning  of  the  sacred  text.  He  held 
that  sacred  and  secular  compositions  were  amenable  to 
the  same  rules  of  criticism.  "  Insisting  that  the  Cant- 
icles must  be  interpreted  literally,  he  advocated  the 
exclusion  of  the  book  from  the  Canon.  He  treated 
the  Book  of  Job  as  a  Gentile  drama,  and  threw  out  the 
Books  of  Chronicles  and  Ezra,  also  the  Epistle  of  St. 
James,  though  it  was  contained  in  the  Peschito  Version 
of  his  Church.  He  limited  the  Messianic  Psalms  to 
four,  denying  that  the   twenty-second   and   sixty-ninth 


360        The  Ministry  and  ''the  New  Theology." 

applied  to  Christ.  St.  Thomas's  words,  '  My  Lord  and 
my  God ! '  were  only  a  joyful  exclamation ;  and  our 
Lord's  '  Receive  ye  the  Holy  Ghost,'  simply  a  fore- 
shado^ving  of  the  day  of  Pentecost."  He  explained 
the  doctrine  of  original  sin  very  much  as  a  modern 
free-thinker  would,  and  openly  denied  the  doctrine  of 
everlasting  punishment.  In  determining  the  drift  of 
Syrian  theology,  he  overmastered  the  sounder  thought 
of  St.  Cyril,  St.  Chrysostom,  and  Theodoret,  and,  by  his 
learning  and  logical  power,  obtained  a  wide  acceptance 
for  errors  of  which  Paul  of  Samosata  had  been  the  fore- 
runner ;  while  from  his  teaching  on  the  Incarnation 
was  derived  the  germ  of  the  Is'estorian  heresy,  which 
separated  the  Divine  Person  of  Christ  from  His  man- 
hood. 

Precisely  how  much  of  the  formal  teaching  of  the 
school  of  Antioch,  of  which  Theodore  of  Mopsuestia 
was  the  acknowledged  head,  "  the  Renaissance "  has 
imported  into  its  theology,  it  may  be  difficult  to  tell. 
It  is  enough  for  our  purpose,  that  we  find  abundant 
evidence  of  a  strong  family  likeness  between  them,  in 
the  spirit  in  which  the  deepest  problems  of  theology 
are  handled,  and  in  the  principles  which  are  to  govern 
the  new  interpretation  of  the  Christian  faith  now 
deemed  inevitable,  and  for  the  furtherance  of  which 
this  new  school  claims  to  have  a  special  mission.  His- 
tory recounts  the  scars  inflicted  upon  the  Church  some 
fifteen  centuries  ago,  by  its  battles  with  this  spirit  and 
with  these  principles ;  and  it  seems  now  as  though  his- 
tory were  soon  to  repeat  itself  on  the  same  lines,  in  the 
battles  to  be  fought  and  the  scars  to  be  borne  by  the 


The  Ministry  and  ''the  New  Theology"        361 

Church  of  the  nineteenth  century.  However  this  may 
be,  it  is  quite  certain  that  the  Christian  Priesthood  of 
our  time  is  not  likely  to  be  stimulated  to  greater  sacri- 
fices, or  to  be  encouraged  to  nobler  ventures  for  Christ, 
by  a  larger  infusion  into  the  Gospel  it  preaches,  and 
into  the  institutions  it  administers,  of  the  modern  type 
of  that  old  Greek  wisdom  which  both  in  Alexandria  and 
Antioch  first  beguiled,  then  compromised,  and  finally 
corrupted  the  religion  of  the  Cross. 

But  from  this  general  view  let  me  proceed  to  some 
particulars  illustrative  of  the  temper  and  attitude  of 
the  New  Theology  as  bearing  upon  the  theme  of  these 
lectures.  The  New  Theology  professes  to  attach  great 
value  to  the  traditional  consensus  of  Christian  judg- 
ment on  all  matters  of  faith.  Were  this  so,  we  might 
hope  to  derive  some  benefit  from  it ;  for  it  w^ould 
go  far  toward  giving  us  the  rare,  and,  in  the  opinion 
of  some,  impossible  alliance  of  energetic  and  enter- 
prising nineteenth-century  thought  with  Catholic  tra- 
dition. But  this  profession,  when  examined,  turns  out 
to  be  quite  meaningless.  The  consensus  is  regarded 
simply  as  an  aggregation  of  opinions,  to  be  respected  as 
many  other  things  are  that  have  outlived  a  long  series 
of  ages,  but  with  no  authority  save  what  may  arise 
from  the  favorable  verdicts  of  individual  thinkers. 
That  there  is  no  thought  of  accepting  it  as  a  formative 
or  guiding  principle,  is  evident  from  the  fact  that  this 
theology  claims,  as  one  of  its  distinguishing  notes,  to 
have  introduced  into  all  religious  inquiry  a  wider  and 
freer  use  of  reason,  understanding  by  reason  the  whole 
moral  as  well  as  intellectual  nature  of  man;  so  that, 


362         The  Ministry  and  '•'■the  New  Theology." 

however  promising  the  start,  we  may  in  the  end  see 
repeated  the  familiar  license  of  rationalism,  sobered 
down  somewhat  by  a  more  cultivated  reverence  for  the 
old  learning,  and  a  more  respectful  handling  of  Catholic 
consent.  Its  attitude  comes  out  more  clearly  in  its 
view  of  the  general  relation  of  reason  to  revelation,  and 
of  the  function  of  reason  as  the  interpreter  of  revela- 
tion. It  tells  us  that  the  only  consensus  of  any  use  or 
authority  is  that  which  can  be  shown  to  exist  between 
revelation  and  the  normal  action  of  human  nature.  The 
Scriptures  are  not  the  revelation  of  God,  but  the  history 
of  such  a  revelation,  —  a  history  with  a  core  of  truth 
hedged  about  with  accidental  surplusage,  a  mass  of  an- 
thropomorphic accretions ;  and  it  is  the  office  of  reason 
to  disentangle  the  one  from  the  other.  This  history, 
moreover,  is  an  evolution,  a  development  of  the  higher 
from  the  lower,  of  ethical  ripeness  from  ethical  crudity, 
of  race-maturity  from  race-infancy,  of  civilization  from 
barbarism,  of  Christianity  from  Judaism ;  and  it  is  the 
prerogative  of  reason  to  determine  the  successive  stages 
of  this  evolution,  and  the  meaning  of  each,  and  this  in 
such  a  sense  as  logically  to  justify  the  inference  that 
the  whole  process  is  simply  a  subjective,  self-ordered 
development  of  humanity,  and  in  no  authoritative,  ex- 
clusive sense  originated,  guided,  and  consummated  by 
an  external  Divine  Will  —  even  God  Himself.  In  other 
words,  revelation  is  reason  evolving  itself  under  the 
conditions  of  history.  God  is  in  the  process  only  as 
He  is  in  reason,  and  the  contents  of  revelation  are  only 
the  original  and  inherent  contents  of  reason.  Thus  it 
follows  that  the  only  authority  which  obliges  any  man 


The  Ministry  and  "the  New  Theology"       363 

to  accept  revelation  is  not  an  authority  inherent  in  the 
revelation,  but  the  authority  of  reason  to  adjudge  the 
reasonableness  of  the  revelation.  The  only  binding 
consensus,  therefore,  is  the  consensus  of  reason  with 
itself;  or,  to  attenuate  still  further  the  obligation  of 
belief,  of  the  individual  reason  with  collective  reason  as 
it  has  spoken  in  history.  Quite  consistently,  therefore, 
the  New  Theology  curtly  dismisses  all  hitherto  accepted 
methods  of  interpreting  the  Scriptures,  and,  in  spite  of 
its  sympathy  with  the  old  Greek  thought,  rejects  the 
allegorical  and  mystical  methods  as  visionary  and  fool- 
ish, and  holds  up  to  ridicule  the  "  literal-meaning " 
method  as  dry  and  mechanical,  besides  being  overladen 
with  the  superstitious  rubbish  of  the  '-verbal-inspira- 
tion "  theory.  According  to  its  dictum,  all  rational  in- 
terpretation resolves  itself  into  the  question,  How  much 
is  shell,  and  how  much  is  kernel?  When  this  "Re- 
naissance," therefore,  offers  to  pour  new  blood  into  the 
so-called  shrunken  arteries  of  our  Ministry,  let  us  un- 
derstand its  source  and  quality.  It  is  the  oft-cited  story 
over  again  of  "  fearing  the  Greeks  even  when  bearing 
gifts." 

Enough,  perhaps,  has  been  said  to  show,  that,  in  the 
effort  to  secure  to  the  Ministry  a  fresh  lease  of  power 
at  this  time,  little  real  help  is  to  be  looked  for  in  this 
direction.  And  yet  we  are  so  persistently  admonished 
by  what  passes  for  the  higher  thought  and  literature 
of  the  day,  that,  unless  we  can  find  it  here,  we  can  find 
it  nowhere,  it  may  be  well  to  follow  the  New  Theology 
somewhat  farther.  On  the  theistic  side,  and  as  against 
all  phases  of  scientific  materialism,  the  New  Theology  is 


364         The  Ministry  and  ^^the  New  Theology.'' 

outspoken  and  emphatic.  The  notion  of  the  Absolute 
Being  as  unknown  and  unknowable,  as  without  person- 
ality, or,  if  with  it,  existing  possibly  apart  from  con- 
scious relations  to  the  human  soul ;  the  notion  of  law 
without  a  Lawgiver,  of  creation  without  a  Creator,  of 
matter  as  self-originated  and  self-moved,  of  mind  as  a 
sublimated  gradation  of  matter,  and  the  product  of 
organization,  of  the  free  will  of  man  as  only  one  form 
of  the  by-play  of  necessity,  of  human  society  and  human 
history  as  fast-bound  in  the  meshes  of  immutable  and 
universal  law,  of  physical  evolution,  though  accepted  as 
the  probable  solution  of  the  world's  growth,  without  an 
immanent  God  to  begin  and  fashion  it,  of  all  life  as  a 
game  of  battledoor  and  shuttlecock  between  opposing 
necessities,  —  against  all  these  and  kindred  dogmas  of 
materialism,  it  bears  witness  with  hot  energy  and  dis- 
dainful indignation.  And,  further,  it  may  be  justly  said 
that  it  has  sifted  and  discussed  and  refuted  these  aspects 
of  modern  thought  with  a  fulness  and  versatility  of  lit- 
erary power  worthy  of  all  admiration.  It  may  have  said 
nothing  on  this  subject  not  elsewhere  said,  and  well  said, 
by  Christian  thinkers  of  the  traditional  school ;  but  cer- 
tainly it  has  given  its  testimony  in  a  style  so  fresh  and 
stimulating  that  no  live  Ministry  can  help  being  profited 
by  it.  Would  that  it  had  done  for  us  in  the  sphere 
of  revealed  religion  what  it  has  done  in  the  sphere  of 
natural  religion! 

Coming  back  to  the  former,  I  would  ask  you  to  note 
its  deliverance  on  the  organic  life,  or,  to  use  its  own 
favorite  phrase,  on  the  solidarity  of  the  race.  Its  view 
is  captivating  because  of  its  comprehensiveness,  but  it 


The  Ministry  and  ^^the  New  Theology ."       365 

is  not  true  to  the  facts  as  Catholic  theology  understands 
them.  It  teaches  not  only  a  natural  solidarity  of  man- 
kind, —  a  solidarity  growing  out  of  the  same  physical, 
mental,  and  moral  constitution,  out  of  the  same  origin 
and  blood,  the  same  common  trend,  —  but  a  supernat- 
ural solidarity;  as  though  redemption  were  not  only 
an  accomplished  fact,  and  either  actually  offered  or  in 
the  way  of  being  offered  to  all  men,  but  as  though  it 
had  already  taken  effect  upon  all  men,  were  now  their 
possession  as  well  as  their  promised  inheritance,  and  in 
moving  a  part  had  moved  also  the  whole  race,  and  this 
quite  independently  of  the  question  whether  or  no  the 
proper  fruits  of  this  moving,  this  new  solidarity,  be  ap- 
parent in  external  life.  If  I  have  correctly  stated  the 
idea,  it  would  seem  to  involve  the  further  idea  that  the 
spiritual  and  supernatural  unity  of  the  race,  which  our 
Lord  came  to  re-create  by  imparting  to  men  His  life, 
was  accomplished  by  the  fact  of  His  coming,  or  by  the 
fact  of  His  publishing  the  conditions  on  which  His  life 
could  enter  into  the  life  of  humanity ;  without  regard  to 
the  actual  gathering  of  men  through  the  one  Baptism 
into  His  Body,  the  Church,  whose  unity  or  solidarity 
is  the  only  supernatural  one  represented  by  the  Gospel 
as  possible  under  the  exercise  of  its  power.  It  is  right 
in  protesting,  and  it  has  our  hearty  sympathy  in  doing 
so,  against  the  theory  that  holds  to  "  an  absolute  soli- 
darity of  evil,  relieved  only  by  a  doctrine  of  election  of 
individuals  ; "  that  the  world  is  not  a  saved  as  well  as  a 
fallen  world ;  that  Cnrist  is  less  to  it  than  Adam ;  that 
"  the  links  that  bind  the  race  to  evil  are  not  correlated 
by  links  equally  strong  binding  it  to  righteousness ;  "  that 


366         The  Ministry  and  ''the  New  Theology'' 

the  redemptive  and  delivering  forces  have  not  a  sweep 
corresponding  with  the  forces  that  work  for  the  bondage 
of  humanity ;  that  the  family,  society,  the  nation,  the  fields 
of  honest  labor  whether  of  mind  or  body,  are  outside 
the  operation  of  the  Spirit  of  God.  The  fault  is,  that 
it  pushes  the  asserted  solidarity  of  the  race,  in  good  as 
well  as  evil,  so  far  that  it  gives  us  a  notion  of  imputed 
supernatural  unity  which  seems  veiy  like  another  form 
of  the  old  notion  of  imputed  righteousness.  The  ex- 
treme form  of  the  foregoing  protest  is  due  to  a  re-action 
from  New-England  Calvinism,  and  to  a  too-stimulating 
draught  of  "  the  enthusiasm  of  humanity."  Catholic 
theology,  true  to  the  Gospel,  and  to  the  constitution  and 
commission  of  the  Church,  has  always  declared  their 
field  to  be  no  narrower  than  the  world ;  and  that  the 
family,  the  nation,  society  with  all  its  normal  interests, 
are  divine,  not  only  because  ordained  of  God,  but  as 
well  because  God  works  in  and  through  them  by  His 
Spirit,  who  in  turn  works  by  the  Church,  constituted 
of  God  to  be  the  organ  of  all  redemptive  forces.  In 
taking  human  nature  upon  Himself,  Christ  changed  a 
lost  into  a  saved  race  in  respect  of  the  opportunity,  the 
privilege,  the  capacity,  the  power,  and  the  means  of  sal- 
vation. In  all  these  regards,  humanity  as  a  whole  was 
born  again,  and  the  sweep  of  redemptive  virtue  was  uni- 
versal ;  but  absolutely,  in  fact  and  deed,  eternal  life  is 
the  property  of  the  race  only  as  its  individual  members, 
in  the  exercise  of  their  moral  liberty,  and  apart  from 
all  arbitrary  election,  accept  it  on  conditions  annexed  to 
the  gift  by  Christ  Himself.  Ideally,  potentially,  the 
Church,  which  is  His  Body,  includes  all  men,  as  it  was 


The  Ministry  and  ''the  New  Theology"        367 

made  for  all  men,  and  strives  to  become  that  for  which 
it  was  made.  Actually,  historically,  it  is  bounded  by  its 
membership,  and  is  the  Church  of  the  race  only  so  far 
as  the  race  has  entered  it.  And  thus,  as  the  new  super- 
natural unity  or  solidarity  of  grace  can  be  predicated  only 
of  Christ's  Body,  so  it  can  be  predicated  of  the  race  only 
to  the  extent  that  the  race  in  its  individual  parts  has 
been  re-created  by  the  life  of  Christ,  and  so  joined  unto 
His  Body.  This  notion  of  the  New  Theology  seems  to 
be  little  more  than  unregenerate  naturalism,  wearing  the 
livery  and  claiming  the  inheritance  of  a  supernatural 
regeneration.  In  effect,  by  transferring  from  the  Church 
to  humanity  at  large  the  solidarity  which  is  and  must 
be  the  fruit  of  an  appropriated,  not  a  merely  purchased 
or  proffered  redemption,  it  strips  the  Church  of  its 
raison  (VUre  ;  reduces  it  to  an  aggregation  of  voluntary 
societies,  representing  only  in  a  fragmentary  way  the 
unity  of  a  redeemed  race,  no  longer  the  equivalent  of 
the  unity  of  Christ's  Body  ;  and  forces  into  the  same 
degradation  the  Sacraments,  the  Worship,  and  the 
Priesthood  of  Christianity.  Certainly  no  help  can  come 
to  the  Ministry  from  a  view  that  thus  radically  cuts  the 
ground  from  under  its  feet. 

But  in  adverting  to  this  aspect  of  the  New  Theology, 
I  have  stated  the  basis  in  philosophy  and  theology  on 
which  it  rests  its  much-vaunted  "  Gospel  of  the  secular 
life."  ^  This  opens  up  too  wide  a  field  of  discussion  to 
be  compassed  here.  I  shall  traverse  only  such  parts  of 
it  as  have  a  bearing  upon  my  subject.  No  one  who  has 
watched  the  tendencies  of  the  more  advanced  thought 

1  Canon  Fremantle's  Sermons  (1883). 


368         The  Ministri/  and  ''the  New  Theology" 

of  the  day  can  have  failed  to  observe  the  coincidence 
between  the  gradual  narrowing  and  occasional  disap- 
pearance of  the  distinctions  which  mark  off  the  natural 
from  the  supernatural,  and  the  like  process  in  the  dis- 
tinctions which  separate  the  secular  from  the  sacred. 
The  two  processes  have  gone  on  pari  passu,  and  seem  to 
stand  toward  one  another  in  the  relation  of  cause  and 
effect.  As  we  are  told  in  the  one  case  that  the  distinc- 
tions have  no  ground  in  reason  or  in  the  world's  real 
order,  so  we  are  told  in  the  other  that  they  are  not 
warranted  by  the  Hebrew  or  the  Christian  Scriptures 
or  by  man's  nature,  and  that  no  good  end  is  served  by 
retaining  them.  It  is  argued  that  their  disappearance 
from  our  current  thought  and  language  would  be 
followed  by  certain  happy  results;  e.g.,  spiritual  pro- 
cesses affecting  the  individual  soul  in  its  relations  to 
the  higher  life  would  assume  a  moral  in  place  of  a 
magical  character ;  faith  definitions  would  be  so  modi- 
fied and  enlarged,  and  theology  generally  so  broadened, 
as  to  take  in  the  whole  of  human  life  and  the  whole 
of  the  world's  knowledge ;  and  thus  the  sympathies  of 
religious  thought  would  be  as  wide  and  elastic  as  those 
of  literature,  which,  because  it  has  been  free  to  range 
over  both,  has  stimulated  if  it  has  not  directed  the 
present  revolt  against  modern  theology.  The  argu- 
ment is  plausible,  and  the  results  to  which  it  points 
might  follow  in  the  way  it  describes,  if  the  way  itself 
were  possible  without  a  radical  change  in  the  world 
regarded  as  representing  the  natural  and  secular,  and 
in  Christianity  regarded  as  representing  the  supernatu- 
ral and  sacred.     If  the  lines  between  the  secular  and 


The  Ministry  and  ''the  New  Theology:'       369 

the  sacred  are  to  be  treated  as  unreal,  either  the  world 
must  be  raised  to  the  plane  of  Christianity,  or  Chris- 
tianity must  be  depressed  to  the  plane  of  the  world.  If 
any  thing  be  clear,  it  is  the  ground  taken  on  this  issue 
by  the  Scriptures  and  by  the  moral  intelligence  of  man. 
Both  by  uniform  implication  and  by  explicit  statement, 
the  Scriptures  declare  the  world  and  the  Church  of 
God  to  be  moving  on  radically  different  planes  of  mo- 
tive, and  to  represent  radically  different  sets  of  forces ; 
while  men  themselves,  acting  from  instinct  as  well  as 
educated  reason,  have  in  all  the  Christian  centuries 
recognized  this  difference  in  their  ordinary  thinking 
and  in  their  ordinary  language.  When  I  speak  of  the 
world  in  this  connection,  I  mean  the  world  as  we  see 
it;  the  world  as  it  is,  with  its  natural  laws  and  pro- 
cesses working  in  the  family,  the  nation,  society  at 
large,  and  in  the  necessary  industries  and  callings  of 
men;  and  the  world  in  its  wickedness,  disorder,  and 
moral  ruin. 

Again:  as  part  of  the  general  plea  for  the  further 
obliteration  of  the  lines  between  the  sacred  and  secular, 
it  is  said  that  the  hitherto  over-strained  emphasis  put 
upon  these  lines  has  tended  to  fasten  upon  the  com- 
mon mind  the  notion  that  God  reveals  Himself,  and 
that  His  Spirit  works,  in  ways  helpful  to  man,  only  with- 
in the  limits  and  under  the  conditions  of  a  formally 
established  covenant,  of  which  the  Scriptures,  the  Sac- 
raments, the  Priesthood,  the  Church,  are  the  witness 
and  mouth-piece ;  whereas,  in  fact,  God  reveals  Him- 
self, and  His  Spirit  operates,  with  equal  fulness  and 
power,  outside  any  special  covenant  or  dispensation,  in 


370         The  Ministry  and  ''the  New  Theology" 

the  on-goings  of  all  life  and  intelligence,  in  the  affairs 
of  human  society,  and  in  all  history ;  guiding,  helping, 
blessing  man,  whether  within  or  without  covenants  and 
dispensations :  in  the  one  case,  perhaps,  by  formal 
promise,  but  in  any  event  in  the  other  by  the  law  of 
His  infinite  love,  which  embraces  alike  all  being  as  the 
atmosphere  embraces  the  earth.  If  this  be  true  now, 
it  has  always  been  true ;  and,  if  it  has  always  been  true, 
it  was  true  of  the  ages  of  the  world  more  immediately 
preceding  the  advent  of  Christ,  in  whom  a  radically 
new  order  of  intervention  in  the  affairs  of  the  world 
was  revealed.  God  was  divinely,  supernaturally  pres- 
ent and  operative  in  those  ages,  no  doubt,  in  the  broad- 
est sense ;  but  that  presence,  that  operation,  whatever 
it  was,  so  far  from  superseding  the  necessity  of  the 
profounder  presence,  the  mightier  operation  of  God 
through  a  covenant  of  His  own  making  with  man, 
through  an  Incarnation  in  which  very  God  became  very 
man,  through  a  Church  which  was  to  publish  that  cove- 
nant, and  to  diffuse  the  new  life  springing  from  that 
Incarnation,  —  so  far  from  the  wider  antecedent  pres- 
ence of  God  in  all  life  taking  the  place  of  or  dimin- 
ishing the  necessity  for  the  latter,  it  was  in  reality  the 
preparation  for  it.  The  two  modes  of  Divine  operation 
are  not  incompatible,  but  mutually  complementary.  In 
virtue  of  the  one,  the  world's  order  did  not  cease  to 
be  what  it  had  been,  a  secular  order ;  in  virtue  of  the 
other,  a  new  order  was  introduced,  which,  because  it 
was  not  of  the  world,  but  a  gift,  a  force  from  without, 
whose  first  actual  contact  with  man  and  history  was  the 
transcendent  miracle  of  the  ages,  has  been  named,  by 


The  Ministry  and  ''the  New  Theology"       371 

a  necessity  of  human  thouglit  and  human  language,  the 
sacred  order,  —  the  order  of  redemption  by  the  Incar- 
nation of  the  Son  of  God ;  of  sanctification  by  the  Holy 
Ghost,  the  Lord  and  Giver  of  life ;  of  sacramental  as 
well  as  vital  union  with  God  by  the  Son,  through  the 
Spirit,  in  the  Church  ;  and  of  life  eternal  as  the  result 
of  all  these.  By  the  secular,  then,  we  understand  the 
world  with  God  in  it  as  a  governing  Providence,  imma- 
nent in  all  its  processes,  but  apart  from  the  redeeming 
Christ,  apart  from  organized  Christianity,  apart  from 
the  Divine  Body  constituted  and  ordained  by  Himself 
to  be  His  chosen  instrument  for  making  Himself  known 
unto  men.  By  the  sacred  we  understand,  not  merely 
what  is  Divine  and  supernatural, — for  these,  as  we  have 
seen,  have  entered,  after  a  certain  manner,  into  the 
secular  order, — but  what  relates  to  God's  covenant  with 
man  in  Christ,  of  which  covenant  the  Holy  Scriptures 
are  the  record,  and  the  living  Church  is  the  witness, 
and,  because  related  to  this  covenant,  intended  before 
all  else  to  show  forth  the  holiness  of  God  as  the  crown 
of  His  attributes,  and  to  promote  holiness  in  man  as 
the  final  fruit  of  his  redemption.  The  secular  may 
exhibit  God's  power,  justice,  love,  beneficence  ;  but 
the  sacred  alone  can  exhibit  God's  holiness.  Times, 
places,  things,  ministries,  lives,  characters,  are  by  God 
Himself  declared  sacred,  set  apart,  devoted,  to  the  ex- 
tent that  they  serve  holy  uses  and  holy  ends.  It  is 
not  the  orderly,  or  the  beautiful,  or  the  useful,  or  even 
the  right  or  the  true,  that  transmutes  the  common  into 
the  sacred,  but  the  end  and  the  use  ultimate  with  God, 
and  by  Him  treated  as  the  crown  of  perfection  to  all 
being,  —  the  holy. 


372         The  Ministry  and  ''the  New  Theology:' 

The  issue  here  raised  by  the  New  Theology  is  really 
none  other  than  the  issue  between  nature  and  grace ; 
an  issue  as  old  as  Christianity  itself,  or  rather  as  old  as 
the  attempts  of  human  reason  to  dovetail  into  its  own 
processes  whatever  in  Christianity  claims  to  be  an  im- 
mediate and  distinctive  revelation  from  God.  If  we 
go  back  to  the  early  days  of  the  theologies  of  the  East 
and  the  West,  Alexandria  and  North  Africa,  we  find 
that  the  former  was  inclined  to  enlarge  the  idea  of 
inspiration  so  that  it  would  apply  to  all,  in  every  age 
and  every  land,  who  had  rendered  important  service  to 
the  cause  of  truth  ;  while  the  latter  was  quite  as  decid- 
edly inclined  to  limit  the  idea  to  those  through  whom 
God  had  spoken  in  the  order  of  grace.  The  two  did 
not  antagonize.  The  East,  in  taking  the  broader  view, 
held,  with  the  West,  that  God  had  spoken  in  the  Holy 
Scriptures  as  He  had  not  elsewhere,  in  respect  both  to 
the  quality  and  the  degree  of  the  knowledge  communi- 
cated. The  West,  in  insisting  upon  certain  limitations 
of  the  idea,  held,  with  the  East,  that  there  was  a  sense 
in  which  the  Divine  Spirit  had  wrought  in  the  minds 
of  the  leaders  of  the  old  humanity.  'Their  differences 
were  reconciled  in  a  higher  unity.  The  attempt  of  the 
New  Theology  to  put  the  ancient  East  and  the  ancient 
West  at  variance  on  this  point  is  futile.  Both  were  true 
to  a  common  tradition  as  to  the  fundamental  distinction 
between  nature  and  grace :  only  the  East,  because  of  its 
environments,  went  to  the  farthest  verge  of  concession 
to  the  demands  of  reason ;  while  the  West,  differently 
situated  as  to  external  surroundings  and  as  to  intellectual 
temperament,  shaped  its  course  more  exclusively  within 


The  Ministry  and  ^^the  New  Theology."        373 

the  lines  of  grace.  Tendencies  difficult  of  reconcilia- 
tion then  have  continued  so  ever  since.  To-day  we  are 
familiar  with  the  school  —  nay,  we  are  now  dealing 
with  it  —  that  finds  it  easy  to  so  widen  out  the  Divine 
gift  of  inspiration  as  to  include  in  the  same  category 
with  Christ,  Plato  and  Socrates,  Buddha  and  Zoroaster ; 
while  to  the  general  feeling  of  Christians  it  is  only  less 
than  profanity  to  regard  the  so-called  ethnic  but  really 
pagan  religions  as  proceeding  from  God.  Christianity 
itself  is  the  only  successful  mediator  between  these 
opposing  camps.  It  cannot  explain  or  defend  its  rai- 
son  d'etre  without  making  room  for  and  adjusting  the 
two  economies,  —  the  one,  that  of  the  Spirit  proceed- 
ing from  the  Father ;  the  other,  that  of  the  Spirit  pro- 
ceeding from  the  Father  and  the  Son.  In  the  order  of 
nature,  God  as  the  Father  of  aU  is  immanent  in  all. 
Whatever  lives,  lives  in  and  through  His  life.  Science 
is  at  its  highest  and  best  when  it  presents  nature  to  us 
by  demonstration  and  illustration  as  a  living  organism. 
The  old  Greek  thought  proclaimed  the  idea  without  the 
proof:  the  newest  modern  thought  gives  us  both.  Of 
this  organism,  man  himself  being  the  crowning  because 
the  conscious,  rational  part,  God  is  the  vital  principle,  the 
all-governing  and  sustaining  force.  The  Holy  Ghost 
as  the  Spuit  of  God  is  this  principle,  this  force.  The 
Holy  Ghost  is  in  all  spheres,  all  grades  of  life,  the 
Lord  and  Giver  of  life,  as  well  to  matter  and  intellect 
as  to  spirit.  If  poets,  philosophers,  sages,  great  moral 
teachers  in  any  age,  have  spoken  well  and  wisely  of  the 
deep  things  of  God  and  of  humanity,  they  have  spoken 
as  the  Spirit  of  God  has  given  them  utterance.     But 


374         The  Ministry  and  ''the  New  Theology." 

this  Eternal  Spirit,  this  Lord  and  Giver  of  life,  has  His 
procession  from  the  Son  as  well  as  from  the  Father :  and 
so  He  works  after  one  sort  in  nature,  and  after  another 
in  grace ;  after  one  sort  upon  the  old  and  fallen  life  of 
the  first  Adam,  after  another  upon  the  new  and  risen 
life  of  the  second  Adam.  The  afflatus  of  the  Spirit  — 
the  inspiring,  energizing  impulse  communicated  to  man 
by  Him  on  the  plane  of  nature  —  within  a  world  dead 
in  trespasses  and  sins,  and  not  yet  stuTed  by  a  throb 
of  redemptive  power,  differs  from  what  He  does  in  and 
for  man  as  the  subject  of  that  redemptive  power,  pre- 
cisely as  God  the  creator,  the  governor,  and  sustainer 
of  all,  differs  from  God  manifest  in  the  flesh,  —  God  in 
Christ  unveiling  the  hidden  glory  of  His  being,  and 
moving  as  redeemer  and  reconciler  upon  humanity  in 
its  sin,  alienation,  and  wretchedness.  The  life  dis- 
pensed by  God  in  Christ  is  said  to  be  the  new  life, 
because  it  is  the  fruit  of  a  new  moral  creation.  The 
source  of  this  new  creation  is  the  Eternal  Son  of  God, 
in  whom  the  two  natures,  Divine  and  human,  were  for- 
ever united.  And  it  was  the  miracle  of  Pentecost,  that 
He  sent  the  Holy  Ghost  to  communicate  the  new  life 
springing  from  this  new  creation,  to  a  race  spiritually 
dead.  The  Christ,  the  author  of  the  new  creation,  is 
careful  to  tell  us  that  in  this  work  the  Holy  Ghost, 
though  the  Lord  and  Giver  of  life,  takes  not  of  His 
own,  but  of  the  things  of  Christ;  takes  not  what  was 
His  before  the  incarnation,  —  the  things  of  the  Father 
in  the  order  of  nature,  the  things  made  known  to  men, 
breathed  into  them  as  a  divine  afflatus  under  that  order, 
—  but  the  things  of  the  new  order  of  grace  in  Christ 


The  Ministry  and  "  the  New  Theology''        375 

Jesus.  So  original,  so  radically  unlike  any  thing  seen 
before,  was  the  work  of  the  Spirit  under  the  economy  of 
Christ,  that  the  Word  of  God  speaks  of  Him  as  a  neiv 
power,  and  men,  when  asked  if  they  knew  Him,  were 
constrained  to  say  that  they  had  not  so  much  as  heard 
whether  there  were  any  Holy  Ghost  However,  then, 
the  two  economies,  the  sacred  and  the  secular,  may  be 
correlated  or  interfused  or  superimposed,  they  are  dis- 
tinct, and  cannot  be  confounded  without  violence  to  the 
nature  of  things,  to  the  common  thought  and  language 
of  mankind,  and  to  the  plain  teaching  of  God's  written 
Word. 

Again :  this  "  gospel  of  the  secular  life  "  has  another 
chapter  worthy  of  our  notice.  It  tells  us  that  the  the- 
ology it  seeks  to  displace,  the  religion  it  aims  to  widen 
out,  has  massed  human  life  too  much  in  a  few  ideal 
conditions ;  has  balanced  itself  too  much  on  successive 
pivotal  points,  as  sin,  the  Divine  sovereignty,  the  atone- 
ment, justification,  sacramental  grace.  Church  authority ; 
and,  as  a  consequence,  has  "  touched  human  nature  and 
human  interests  generally  as  a  sphere  touches  a  plane, 
—  at  one  point  only  at  a  time,"  and  so  alongside  their 
breadth  has  put  its  own  narrowness  and  angularity. 
Thus  Christianity  has  withdrawn  into  its  own  little 
round  of  dogma  and  worship,  and  squandered  both  its 
opportunity  and  its  power  to  establish  its  supremacy 
over  science  and  art,  literature  and  politics,  and  all  the 
recognized  avocations  of  men.  It  were  easy  to  show, 
that,  so  far  as  this  is  true,  it  is  true  of  modern  religion 
when  rent  by  schism  and  organized  into  sects,  thus 
presenting  itself  of  necessity  in  fragmentary  forms,  and 


376        The  Ministry  and  ''the  New  Theology:' 

pressing  upon  life  at  only  a  few  isolated  points ;  and, 
further,  it  were  easy  to  show  that  wherever  and  just  in 
proportion  as  modern  religion  has  reverted  to  the  prim- 
itive Catholic  basis,  it  has  drawn  to  itself  larger  areas 
of  society,  mingled  with  more  varied  interests,  and  de- 
veloped a  living  sympathy  with  the  labors  and  aspira- 
tions of  men  in  every  department  of  their  life.  But  I 
pass  on  to  the  cure  which  this  new  gospel  prescribes 
for  these  failures  of  modern  Christianity. 

1.  We  are  to  present  religion  so  as  to  antagonize 
human  nature  at  as  few  points  as  possible.  To  this  end, 
we  are  to  eliminate  as  much  as  we  can  its  mysterious, 
and  rely  upon  its  moral  aspects.  The  Cross  of  Christ 
was  an  offence  to  the  Jew,  the  Greek,  the  Roman, — the 
three  generic  types  of  character  to  the  end  of  time. 
St.  Paul,  indeed,  could  devise  no  mode  of  preaching  it 
that  would  make  it  otherwise.  But  the  world  moves ; 
humanity  grows ;  the  Cross  takes  on  new  adaptations 
and  new  meanings  under  fresher  lights  ;  and  because  it 
was  once  an  offence,  is  no  reason  why  it  should  not  be 
so  taught  now  as  to  conciliate  rather  than  repel  the  nat- 
ural man.  Acting  on  the  same  line,  we  are  to  bring  the 
Sacraments  down  to  a  purely  moral  and  rational  basis,  by 
showing  how  they  fit  into  and  serve  certain  moral  and 
rational  uses  in  religious  training ;  and  the  Priesthood 
we  are  to  reduce  to  the  same  basis,  by  denying  any  grace 
of  orders  or  God-given  authority  for  prescribed  func- 
tions, and  finding  in  it  just  the  amount  of  grace  which 
the  goodness  of  the  individual  Priest  will  yield,  just 
the  amount  of  authority  which  his  character  and  attain- 
ments entitle  him  to  as  a  man  among  men.     But  this  is 


The  Ministry  and  ''the  New  Theology:'        377 

not  Christianity,  except  in  the  "  Renaissance "  concep- 
tion of  it. 

2.  We  are  to  teach  Christianity,  not  as  a  faith  to  be 
believed,  as  well  as  a  rule  of  life  to  be  obeyed,  the 
belief  and  the  life  being  only  opposite  sides  of  one  and 
the  same  principle ;  but  as  a  cluster  of  sympathies  and 
aspirations,  with  a  life  growing  out  of  them,  and  con- 
formed to  them  as  its  roots.  But  this,  too,  is  not 
Christianity. 

3.  We  are  to  regard  "  the  Church  as  a  social  state, 
in  which  the  spiiit  of  Christ  reigns ; "  a  social  state 
asserting  itself  as  well  without  as  within  the  recognized 
field  of  the  Church's  energy,  and  into  which  state  men 
in  every  calling — scientists,  men  of  letters,  artists,  poli- 
ticians, soldiers,  tradesmen,  it  matters  not  who  —  are 
to  be  considered  as  having  entered,  and  as  properly  be- 
longing to  it,  who  in  their  work  or  vocation  exhibit  the 
spirit  of  Christ,  i.e.,  as  here  defined,  the  spirit  of  self- 
sacrifice  ;  and  this,  though  they  confess  not  Christ  before 
the  world  by  receiving  the  one  Baptism  for  the  remission 
of  sins,  and  by  submitting  themselves  to  the  discipline 
of  his  Church.  The  Church  may  continue  to  teach,  to 
maintain  public  worship,  to  ordain  a  Priesthood,  to 
watch  over  souls  in  their  sin  and  sorrow,  to  uplift  the 
Cross  as  the  symbol  of  the  one  atoning  sacrifice ;  but 
these,  so  far  from  being  its  foremost  aims  and  functions, 
must  all  give  way  to  the  idea  of  the  Church  "  as  a 
social  state,"  to  be  entered  independently  of  Creed,  Sac- 
rament, or  Ministry,  and  with  no  acknowledgment  or 
practice  of  worship  as  a  fundamental  duty.  This,  too, 
is  not  Christianity,  whatever  else  it  may  be. 


3.78         The  Ministry  and  ''the  New  Theology  J' 

4.  But  the  above  conception  of  the  Church,  as  "  a 
social  state  permeated  by  the  Christ-spirit,"  is  expanded 
and  intensified  by  an  application  of  the  doctrine  of  the 
universal  Priesthood  of  believers,  which  affirms  that 
every  man  exercises  a  function  or  ministry  of  the 
Church  who  carries  into  his  calling  or  sphere  of  influ- 
ence an  unselfish  motive,  love  toward  his  fellow-men,  a 
desire  to  be  useful,  honest,  industrious,  for  the  sake  of 
others  as  well  as  for  his  own  sake,  and  to  imitate  Christ 
generally  so  far  as  he  can  do  it  without  obedience  to 
some  of  Christ's  most  explicit  commands.  In  other 
words,  a  man  may  take  his  place  in  the  universal  Priest- 
hood of  believers,  and  exercise  a  function  or  ministry  of 
the  Church,  though  he  has  never  recognized  the  Church 
itself,  but  has  always  lived  outside  of  and  apart  from  it. 
This,  again,  is  not  Christianity,  however  it  may  aff"ord 
the  New  Theology  a  basis  for  its  gospel  of  the  secular 
life. 

The  remedy  is  worse  than  the  disease.  Better  that 
Christianity  should  cover  less  of  human  life,  and  retain 
its  essential  type,  than  that  in  the  effort  to  cover,  in  this 
nineteenth  century,  the  whole  of  it,  it  should  part  with 
so  much  of  that  type  as  to  endanger  what  little  might 
be  left.  This  is  simply  the  last  of  the  series  of  attempts 
in  history,  to  popularize  religion  by  cheapening  it ;  to 
convert  pagans  by  dropping  out  what  pagans  dislike;  to 
win  over  unbelief  by  watering  the  faith  down  to  its 
requirement ;  to  conquer  the  world  by  going  down, 
through  big  words  about  ethics  and  humanity  and 
science  and  eternal  laws  and  human  progress,  to  its  own 
plane.     Doubtless   it  would   be  well   if  our   Christian 


The  Ministry  and ''the  New  Theology:'        379 

teaching  had  more  breadth ;  but  to  have  more  breadth, 
and  to  have  it  safely,  it  must  first  have  more  depth  and 
more  height  on  the  God-ward  side.  Sect-Christianity 
may  have  presented  religion  as  balanced  on  its  own  par- 
ticular dogmatic  pivot,  and  so  as  an  inverted  pyramid ; 
but  in  this  scheme  we  have  the  same  process  over 
again,  only  the  pyramid  is  inverted  by  a  philosophical 
idealism,  under  whose  guidance  the  individual  reason 
strips  Christianity  of  its  organic  constitution,  its  organic 
force,  its  organic  authority  as  the  Kingdom  of  Christ, 
and  resolves  it  into  the  person  of  Christ,  concerning 
whose  attributes  it  breeds  the  most  radical  differences 
of  opinion ;  or  into  the  spirit  of  Christ,  which  every 
man  is  free  to  interpret  for  himself:  individualism,  in 
either  case,  being  the  small  end  of  the  pyramid,  and  the 
chief  point  of  contact  between  the  Christian  faith  and 
human  life. 

I  come  now  to  another  deliverance  of  the  New 
Theology,  —  another  of  its  conceptions  of  Christianity, 
which  is  of  vital  moment  to  the  office  and  work  of  the 
Ministry ;  a  conception,  not  so  much  of  sin,  as  of  God's 
mode  of  dealing  with  it,  which  cuts  sheer  through  Cath- 
olic tradition,  especially  as  to  the  latter;  empties  our 
Eucharistic  Office  in  particular  of  a  large  share  of  its 
meaning ;  makes  nonsense  of  much  of  the  language  that 
the  Church,  following  the  use  of  Holy  Scripture,  puts 
into  our  mouths ;  and  strips  the  Ministry  of  every  linea- 
ment of  priestly  function  or  prerogative.  If  I  have 
rightly  interpreted  the  conception  I  am  about  to  bring 
to  your  notice,  it  makes  it  only  additionally  certain  that 
we  are  to  be  hindered,  not  helped,  by  this  latest  revision 


380        The  Ministry  and  ''the  New  Theologj^." 

of  theology,  in  any  attempts  we  may  put  forth  to  recu- 
perate and  advance  our  sacred  vocation.  This  theology 
is  strong  and  explicit,  but  not  complete  in  its  view  of 
sin.  It  emphasizes  the  power,  the  anarchy,  the  misery, 
the  death-dealing  property  of  sin ;  describes  it  as  aliena- 
tion from  God  and  from  humanity ;  as  self-seeking  and 
self-isolation,  variance  from  the  moral  constitution  of 
the  world,  rejection  of  the  law  of  righteousness,  defect 
and  defeat  of  personality ;  as  a  universal  taint  and  cor- 
ruption of  human  nature,  imposing  upon  that  which  is 
free  in  itself  bondage  to  that  which  is  external  to  the 
sphere  of  freedom.  And  yet,  while  so  full  in  all  these 
particulars,  it  has  the  least  to  say  of  that  aspect  or 
quality  of  sin,  its  guilt,  on  which  the  Word  of  God  and 
Catholic  theology  have  most  to  say.  There  is,  some- 
how, a  disposition  to  regard  the  will  of  man  as  only  in 
part  responsible  for  its  own  corruption  and  enslavement, 
—  to  plant,  so  to  speak,  one  foot  of  human  responsi- 
bility in  outward  environments,  leaving  the  other  rather 
weakly  poised  on  the  soul's  self-determining  power ;  and 
consequently,  to  lessen  the  enormity  of  the  guilt  of  sin. 
Certain  it  is  that  its  handling  of  this  feature  of  sin 
causes  it  to  appear  as  a  much  less  dreadful  thing  than  it 
is  made  to  be  by  the  older  theology.  When  I  recall 
how  strong  and  full  is  its  characterization  of  sin  in  all 
other  respects,  I  might  suppose  this  to  be  my  own  infer- 
ence, rather  than  the  fact,  but  for  its  views  of  punish- 
ment and  penalty,  —  punishment  being  regarded  as 
emanating  from  the  Divine  Lawgiver,  and  as  an  expres- 
sion of  His  wrath  against  the  guilty  in  the  form  of 
adequate  suffering   to   meet   the    demands   of  justice; 


The  Ministry  and  ''the  New  Theology.'*        381 

while  penalty  is  simply  violated  law,  working  out,  in  the 
sphere  of  cause  and  effect,  its  own  reprisals  and  re- 
venges. Punishment  as  thus  understood  is  treated  as  a 
forensic,  extra-mundane  conception,  growing  out  of  the 
old  traditional  idea  of  God's  absolute  authority  as  Sove- 
reign of  heaven  and  earth,  and  of  a  direct  personal 
rulership  that  intervenes  in  each  case  requiring  judg- 
ment and  sentence.  This  conception  is  set  aside  entirely 
in  favor  of  another,  which,  in  making  God  immanent  in 
the  order  of  nature  (an  order  that  puts  the  will  under 
law,  as  well  as  every  thing  else),  makes  the  operations 
of  nature  the  sufficient  expressions  of  God's  personal 
feelings  in  their  punitive  office.  "  When  a  man  breaks 
a  law  of  God,  a  sense  of  the  wrath  of  God  at  once 
asserts  itself  if  the  conscience  is  healthy ;  if  it  is  hard- 
ened, it  slumbers,  but  sooner  or  later  it  awakes.  And 
thus  the  wrath  of  God  against  sin  is  wrought  into  the 
very  automatism  of  the  body  and  the  mind.  We  do  not 
know  that  there  is  any  other  way  in  which  God  can  lay 
hold  of  a  sinner  to  punish  him.  He  is  not  limited  in 
Himself,  but  in  the  offender,  who  can  be  reached  only 
through  law  ;  "  because,  I  add,  in  keeping  with  this  view, 
his  only  relation  to  God  is  a  relation  of  law,  and  if  he 
breaks  law,  his  only  punishment,  or  rather  penalty,  con- 
sists in  the  fact  that  he  is  shut  up  vdth  the  violated  law 
and  its  inevitable  effects. 

But  if  man's  only  relation  to  God  in  the  matter  of 
his  sin  and  its  punishment  be  one  of  law,  the  same 
must  be  true  of  his  relation  to  God  in  the  matter  of  his 
sin  and  its  pardon.  If  this  be  so,  the  whole  scheme  of 
redemption  must  not  only  in   its   operation   be   under 


382         The  Ministry  and  ''the  New  Theology:* 

law,  but  in  its  inception  and  introduction  into  the  world 
must  have  been  the  creature  of  law.  But  if  this  be 
true,  then  it  follows  that  the  Incarnation,  Atonement, 
and  Resurrection  of  Christ,  the  pivots  on  which  the 
whole  scheme  swings,  so  far  from  having  been  miracu- 
lous events  through  which  God,  in  the  exercise  of  His 
untrammelled  freedom  and  in  the  plenitude  of  His  infi- 
nite love,  injected  a  new  and  supernatural  force  from 
without  into  human  life  moving  on  in  the  framework  of 
natural  law,  were  themselves  only  so  many  stadia  in  the 
march  of  law,  so  many  evolutions  from  an  immutable 
and  universal  order.  Thus  the  doctrine  of  God's  im- 
manence in  law  turns  out  to  be  little  better  for  human 
thought  and  human  uses  than  the  old  hard  and  fast 
conception  of  law  as  the  ultimate  and  unchangeable 
term  of  all  activity.  Practically  God  is  so  blended  with 
law,  in  itself  only  a  mode  of  His  action,  as  to  merge 
His  free  personality  in  law ;  the  outcome  of  which  is, 
to  the  common  sense  of  mankind,  but  a  very  slight 
improvement  on  the  notion  of  necessity,  the  law  lifted 
above  the  lawgiver.  Thus,  too,  we  have  a  theology, 
which,  starting  with  the  largest  conception  of  God's  self- 
determining  personality,  ends  by  leaving  to  that  person- 
ality no  room  outside  the  mechanism  of  law  for  the  free 
exercise  upon  the  sinner  of  its  providential  power,  either 
in  the  form  of  wrath  and  punishment,  or  of  mercy  and 
forgiveness ;  and,  still  further,  sweeping  away  the  eter- 
nal Judge  and  eternal  judgment,  by  absorbing  both  in 
the  self-executed  processes  of  law,  and  making  no  pro- 
vision for  judicial  as  well  as  natural  penalties,  on  the 
ground  that  Divine  justice,  when   ofi"ended,  needs   no 


The  Mmistry  and  ''the  New  Theology."        383 

other  vindication  or  satisfaction  than  the  future  good 
behavior  of  the  offender. 

Still  wider,  however,  is  the  departure  of  the  New 
from  the  Old  Theology  in  its  view  of  God's  plan  for 
reclaiming  to  obedience  and  love  our  fallen  race.  In 
avowing  what  it  wishes  to  find  in  this  plan,  it  forecasts 
the  results  at  which  it  arrives.  It  sets  out  with  a  pur- 
pose ;  and  this  purpose  predetermines  as  well  its  logic 
and  its  intuitive  convictions,  as  its  interpretation  and 
general  use  of  the  Holy  Scriptures.  It  begins  by  insist- 
ing upon  a  redemption  governed  and  shaped  by  the 
laws  of  eternal  morality,  and  therefore  disencumbered  of 
all  arrangements  resting  on  a  "  mechanical  legality,"  and, 
as  far  as  possible,  of  all  mysteries  that  God  only  can 
solve.  It  will  have  a  moral  atonement  that  violates  no 
human  instinct  of  justice,  that  calls  into  play  the  known 
laws  and  sentiments  of  human  nature,  "  that  saves  men 
by  a  process  that  reason  can  trace,  imposing  the  least 
burden  upon  faith,"  and  securing  oneness  with  the  Christ 
without  troubling  itself  about  dark  problems  concern- 
ing the  counsels  and  decrees  of  God,  or  the  inherent 
demands  of  eternal  justice  considered  as  the  foremost 
interest  of  the  Divine  government. 

There  is  no  doubt  that  all  this  falls  in  admirably  with 
the  current  of  modern  thought,  and  that,  in  the  race  for 
popular  favor,  it  is  far  outstripping  the  older  view  of  the 
atonement.  But  currents  of  thought  are  quite  as  sub- 
ject to  change  as  currents  of  air,  and  popular  sympathy 
really  decides  nothing  in  faith  or  morals.  It  is  well, 
then,  to  ascertain  whether  the  result  foreshadowed  by 
this  liberal  and  comprehensive  prospectus,  and,  indeed, 


384        The  Ministry  and  ''the  New  Theology'' 

already  consummated  and  advertised  from  many  pnlpits 
and  by  much  of  our  religious  literature,  covers  all  the 
facts ;  and  whether,  as  a  consequence,  the  old  Catholic 
teaching  on  the  one  Sacrifice  once  and  forever  offered 
for  the  sins  of  the  world  has  been  hopelessly  breached. 
The  last  word  has  by  no  means  been  spoken  on  this 
subject.  The  man-ward  side  of  it  has  had  free  course 
of  late ;  the  God-ward  side  must  re-appear.  Signs  are 
not  wanting,  in  the  higher  cu'cles  of  devout  as  well  as 
learned  thought,  of  its  renewed  agitation.  The  New 
Theology  has  cut  up  and  thrust  aside,  as  so  much  under- 
brush, some  of  the  plainest,  and,  both  ethically  and  doc- 
trinally  considered,  some*  of  the  most  fundamental  parts 
of  God's  Word.  It  has  put  its  own  prejudiced  gloss  on 
the  moral  intuitions  of  human  nature  which  are  involved 
in  the  matter.  It  has  not  gone  to  the  bottom  of  moral 
evil  in  its  relations  to  Divine  justice,  nor  has  it  com- 
passed the  requirements  of  Divine  justice  in  its  dealings 
with  sin.  It  has  undertaken  to  lift  the  Cross  of  Christ 
out  of  "  time  relations,"  into  the  realm  of  universal  and 
eternal  laws ;  and  in  doing  so  has  muddled  the  whole 
subject  with  notions  that  break  down  or  evaporate  in 
the  attempt  at  intelligible  formulation.  It  has  put  too 
heavy  a  strain  on  what  it  calls  the  vindictive  aspect  of 
God's  government,  as  interpreted  by  the  traditional 
dogma  of  the  atonement,  and  has  relied  too  much  upon 
its  clever  satire  in  stigmatizing  that  dogma  as  the  com- 
mercial conception  of  redemption, — so  much  sin,  and 
so  much  blood  to  wash  it  out ;  so  much  wrath  of  God 
against  sin,  and  so  much  sacrifice  to  conciliate  Ilim. 
And,  finally,  it  fails  to  satisfy  that  darkest  and  perhaps 


The  Ministry  and  ''the  New  Theology.''        385 

deepest  instinct  of  the  soul, —  contrition  for  wrong-doing, 
remorse  for  crime,  which  cannot  be  made  to  believe,  and 
in  earthly  courts  is  not  allowed  to  believe,  that  repent- 
ance alone  will  put  all  things  square,  or  that  man  alone, 
by  any  thing  he  can  do,  can  restore  to  their  normal  place 
moral  relations  which  he  has  breached  and  outraged. 

Justice  is  as  much  an  essential  of  God's  goodness  as 
love.  Indeed,  God  is  perfect  love  only  because  He  is 
perfect  justice.  Justice  is  only  truth  applied  to  rela- 
tions of  which  a  moral  government  must  take  cogni- 
zance. It  is  the  principle  of  order,  as  love  is  the 
principle  of  beneficence,  in  the  universe.  Justice  is 
that  attribute  of  God  which  gives  each  thing  its  due, 
each  thing  its  place  and  relations.  It  is  at  once  the 
constructive  and  conservative  principle  of  the  universe. 
This  new  notion  seems  to  suppose  that  the  justice  of 
God  came  into  play  only  as  a  correlative  or  consequence 
of  moral  evil,  and,  therefore,  that  if  man  had  not  sinned 
it  had  found  no  cause  for  its  being,  no  sphere  for  its 
operation.  So  far  from  this  being  true,  the  vindictive, 
punitive  function  of  justice  toward  moral  evil  presup- 
poses a  justice  universal,  eternal,  and  absolute,  of  which 
this  punitive  function  is  only  a  time-phase  developed  by 
the  disobedience  and  transgression  of  our  fallen  nature. 

The  whole  trend  of  this  new,  and,  as  it  claims,  more 
rational  theology  of  our  day,  throws  into  shadow  this 
side  of  God's  being  and  moral  administration.  So  far 
from  being  new,  it  is  as  old  as  the  oldest  of  the  heresies 
that  have  vexed  the  Church  of  God,  as  old  as  one  of 
the  loosest  and  most  speculative  of  the  Greek  schools 
of  Alexandria.     It  is  trying  now,  as  it  tried  then,  to 


386        The  Ministry/  and  ''the  New  Theology:' 

make  Christianity  easy  and  satisfactory  to  reason  by 
paring  down  its  mysteries.  It  is  trying  now,  moreover, 
as  it  tried  then,  to  make  it  easy  to  the  conscience,  by 
thrusting  aside  God's  justice  in  order  to  surrender  the 
whole  field  of  moral  obligation  and  moral  guilt  to  God's 
love. 

For  these  reasons,  I  say,  the  great  debate  has  not 
ended ;  and  I  believe  it  will  yet  be  shown  at  the  bar  of 
our  modern  Christian  judgment,  that  the  greatest  theo- 
logians of  the  past,  in  nearly  all  the  branches  of  the 
Catholic  Church,  understood  as  well  as  any  of  their 
class  to-day,  all  the  elements.  Divine  and  human,  in- 
volved in  this  doctrine,  and  particularly  the  inspired 
handling  of  these  elements  by  Prophets,  Evangelists, 
and  Apostles ;  and  moreover,  that,  as  with  regard  to 
God's  sovereignty  and  man's  depravity,  so  with  regard 
to  the  atonement,  St.  Paul's  utterances,  so  vivid,  so 
strong,  so  frequent,  on  these  points,  were  not  so  warped 
and  colored  by  the  corruption  of  Koman  society,  or  by 
the  Roman  sense  of  authority,  or  by  Roman  forms  of 
justice,  as  to  make  him  an  unfaithful  or  incompetent 
vehicle  of  the  mind  of  the  Holy  Ghost. 

But  I  must  not  wander  too  far  from  the  purpose  that 
led  me  to  take  up  the  subject  in  this  connection.  That 
purpose  will  be  served  by  a  very  brief  outline  of  the 
Atonement  dogma  as  now  presented  by  the  new  think- 
ing, and  of  its  effect  on  the  office  and  work  of  the  Priest- 
hood. The  dogma  is  given  to  us  in  the  following 
statements  (redemption  being  considered  synonymous 
with  atonement) :  — 

"  The  Christ  redeemed  the  world  by  the  manifestation 


The  Ministry  and  ''the  New  Theology.''        387 

and  realization,  in  the  life  of  humanity,  of  the  coming 
and  life  of  the  Spirit." 

"  The  Christ  redeemed  the  world  by  the  realization 
of  a  perfect  life,  in  the  fulfilment  of  perfect  righteous- 
ness, in  oneness  with  humanity,  and  in  the  conquest  of 
all  the  forces  by  which  humanity  is  alienated  from  God, 
and  men  are  alienated  from  each  other." 

"  The  redemption  of  the  world  in  and  through  the 
Christ  was  the  manifestation  of  the  will  of  God,  the 
manifestation  of  the  love  of  God  for  the  world,  the  mani- 
festation of  what  is  eternal  in  the  being  of  God. 

"  The  redemption  of  the  Christ  is  wrought  in  his 
oneness  with  -humanity  in  and  through  the  life  of 
humanity.  Through  the  relation  of  the  Christ  with 
humanity,  the  redemption  of  the  world  has  its  continu- 
ous realization  in  the  life  of  humanity.  The  law  which 
was  fulfilled  in  the  Christ  is  the  law  of  the  life  of 
humanity ; "  or,  in  plainer  phrase,  Christ  as  the  second 
Adam,  the  head  of  the  body,  imparts  to  the  whole  hu- 
man race,  through  the  union  of  their  nature  with  Plis, 
a  new  principle  of  life ;  so  that  in  His  death  all  die,  in 
His  resurrection  all  are  made  alive.  Thus  we  are  told, 
"  The  sacrifice  of  the  soldier  who  dies  in  battle  for  the 
nation  is  not  the  mere  conformance  to  a  law  of  historical 
necessity,  but  in  such  sufifering  and  sacrifice  there  is  the 
redemptive  life  of  the  world ; "  ^  and  this  irrespective 
of  the  soldier's  knowledge  of  Christ,  or  faith  in  Christ, 
or  having  in  any  way  been  united  with  Christ  save  as  a 
sharer  of  the  human  nature  which  Christ  took  upon 

1  These  quotations  are  from  the  chapter  on  the  Atonement  in  Dr. 
Mulford's  Republic  of  God,  "  An  Institute  of  Theology." 


388        The  Ministry  and  ''the  New  Theology" 

Himself:  so  that,  wherever  there  is  self-sacrifice,  what- 
ever the  motive, — be  it  fame,  patriotism,  any  thing  that 
takes  a  man  out  of  himself,  —  there  is  the  redemptive 
life  of  Christ,  the  atonement  of  the  Cross. 

Now,  we  gather  as  plain  inferences  from  these  state- 
ments, ajid  they  cover  the  whole  teaching  of  the  New 
Theology  on  the  subject,  that,  whatever  the  effect  of  the 
sacrifice  of  Christ  upon  the  relations  between  God  and 
man,  it  was  limited  to  man.  It  was  offered  solely  to 
enable  him  to  overcome  sin,  and  to  live  a  life  acceptable 
to  God  and  beneficial  to  his  fellow-men.  In  no  sense 
did  Christ  take  upon  Him  our  sins,  except  to  show  us 
how  to  turn  away  from  them,  how  to  escape  thek*  bond- 
age and  misery.  In  no  sense  was  Christ  bruised  for 
our  transgressions,  except  to  teach  us  how  to  be  rid  of 
them  and  of  their  consequences.  In  no  sense  did  He 
who  was  holy,  harmless,  and  undefiled,  die  for  us,  the 
just  for  the  unjust,  save  to  educate  us  to  become  holy, 
harmless,  undefiled,  and  just.  He  did  not  suffer  for  us 
to  release  us  from  the  suffering  due  to  our  sinful  nature. 
In  no  form  or  way,  either  as  regards  death,  or  punish- 
ment, or  pain,  or  any  other  consequence  of  moral  guilt, 
did  He  offer  Himself  to  God  as  a  substitute  for  man. 
His  death  and  sacrifice  were  in  no  sense  a  propitiation, 
except  to  win  the  favor  of  man.  They  expiated  noth- 
ing, because  there  was  no  demand  for  expiation.  They 
reconciled  no  one  but  man,  because  there  was  no  one 
else  needing  to  be  reconciled.  Christ  died,  not  as  a 
satisfaction  to  Divine  justice,  because  Divine  justice  has 
all  the  satisfaction  it  requires  by  the  establishment  of 
justice:  all  wrongs,  all  iniquities,  all  crimes,  are  con- 


The  Ministry  and  ''the  New  Theology"        389 

doned  and  forgotten  the  moment  they  cease,  and  their 
opposites  take  their  place.  Justice  has  no  back  scores, 
no  unpaid  debts,  that  are  not  cancelled  by  resolving  to 
make  no  new  score,  to  contract  no  new  debt.  There 
is  nothing  needed  to  wipe  out  misconduct  in  the  past, 
except  good  conduct  in  the  future. 

I  may  not  dwell  upon  the  grave  difficulties  thrown  in 
the  way  of  this  conception  of  the  atonement  by  God's 
Word,  whose  authority  ought  to  be  supreme  upon  one 
of  the  central,  fundamental  facts  of  revelation, —  a  fact 
shading  off  on  all  sides  into  mystery ;  a  fact  confessedly 
undiscoverable  by  reason,  and  transcending  all  explana- 
tions of  reason.  It  is  enough,  perhaps,  to  say  here 
that  this  theory  can  hold  on  its  course  only  by  throw- 
ing one  side,  as  useless  and  unmeaning  Hebraisms,  or 
Latinisms,  or  some  other  isms,  certain  Scriptures,  on 
the  face  of  them  as  clearly  the  inspired  utterances  of 
the  Holy  Ghost  as  any  other  parts  of  the  revealed 
Word.  And  I  may  add,  not  as  an  argument,  but  as  a 
fact,  that  this  theory  would  demand  a  reconstruction  of 
much  of  the  most  frequently  recurring  language  of  our 
Ritual,  or  a  radical  revolution  in  our  ideas  of  its  mean- 
ing. But  the  chief  point  just  now  is  the  bearing  of  this 
theory  on  the  Christian  Ministry, — a  point  of  surpassing 
interest  to  us  while  we  listen  to  the  persuasive  calls  of 
the  New  Theology  to  abandon  the  stifling  fens  of  old 
traditions,  and  mount  up  to  its  breezy,  bracing  airs. 

Now,  whatever  takes  from  or  disintegrates  a  function 
of  the  Sacred  Office,  does  the  same  to  the  Office  itself. 
In  this  case,  the  function  of  the  pulpit  and  the  function 
at  the  font  are  spared ;  nay,  the  former  is  magnified, 


390        The  Ministry  and  " the  New  Theology'' 

while  the  latter,  if  touched,  is  not  directly  assailed.  It 
is  the  function  at  the  altar  that  suffers  most.  The 
Ministry  (or  I  might  say  the  Priesthood:  but  things,  not 
words;  verities,  powers,  virtues,  graces,  not  phrases,  are 
now  in  mind),  —  the  Ministry  and  the  Sacrament  of 
Christ's  Body  and  Blood  rejoice  or  suffer,  live  or  die, 
together ;  for  in  this  Sacrament  the  Ministry  shows  forth 
unto  men,  after  the  institutional,  incorporated  method 
of  Christ's  appointment,  as  it  cannot  do  in  the  pulpit 
or  at  the  font  or  in  the  pastoral  office,  his  perpetual 
mediation  between  God  and  man,  of  which  his  Incar- 
nation, Sacrifice,  and  Eesurrection  are  the  triple  foun- 
dation. This  mediation  has  a  twofold  purpose,  —  the 
reconciliation  of  God,  and  the  reconciliation  of  man  to 
God;  the  former  by  the  oblation  and  satisfaction  made 
to  God  by  the  death  of  Christ ;  the  latter  by  mani- 
festing the  love  and  mercy  of  God,  and  by  conveying  to 
humanity,  through  Christ  as  incarnate  God  and  as  the 
second  Adam,  a  new  principle  of  life.  This  twofold 
purpose  has  its  continuous  and  visible  exhibition  in  the 
Sacrament.  In  and  through  the  Sacrament,  the  Minis- 
try not  only  remind  men  of  what  Christ  did  and  suffered 
for  them,  and  what  he  demands  from  them ;  but  plead 
before  God  the  slain  and  offered  Christ  as  the  propitia- 
tion for  the  sins  of  the  world,  as  the  eternal  and  all- 
sufficient  advocate  with  the  Father  of  a  race  dead  in 
trespasses  and  in  sin.  This,  briefly,  is  the, teaching  of 
Catholic  theology,  and  of  God's  Word  when  allowed  to 
speak  in  its  integrity.  It  runs  through  our  Eucharistic 
Office,  and  through  our  worship  generally,  as  the  life- 
blood  through  the  body.     It  is  woven  into  them,  thread 


The  Ministry  and  ''the  New  Theology''        391 

by  thread,  as  the  nerves  are  woven  into  our  flesh. 
More  than  any  thmg  else,  it  explains  and  justifies  the 
office  and  work  of  the  Ministry  as  ordained  of  God  for 
the  salvation  of  man.  But  here  is  a  theory,  new  chiefly 
in  its  terminology  and  in  its  literary  form  and  philosophi- 
cal basis,  which  cleaves  asunder  the  twofold  purpose  of 
the  holy  Sacrament  and  of  the  holy  Priesthood,  consign- 
ing the  one  part  to  the  rubbish  of  dead  superstitions, 
and  leaving  the  other,  as  we  believe,  to  go  on  its  way  as 
a  fractured  and  bleeding  limb  torn  from  the  body  of  the 
faith  once  delivered. 

We  cannot  turn  from  this  inquiry  into  the  relations 
of  the  New  Theology  to  the  Christian  Ministry  at  the 
close  of  this  century,  without  cordial  acknowledgment 
of  its  service  in  recalling  the  attention  of  the  various 
Ministries  of  the  inorganic  Christianity  of  the  time, 
from  the  modem  dogmas  of  schools  and  sects,  and  from 
all  theological  litigations  and  controversies  as  the  subject- 
matter  of  preaching,  to  the  preaching  of  the  Christ  in 
the  essential,  all-pervading  personality  of  his  life,  char- 
acter, and  work,  beginning  with  the  primal  fact  of  the 
Incarnation  as  the  key  to  all  the  subsequent  facts.  In 
this  mould  was  cast  the  preaching  of  the  Apostolic 
Fathers  and  Saints  of  the  undivided  Church  in  the  first 
five  centuries,  —  preaching  that,  for  its  power  over  the 
hearts  and  minds  of  men,  no  after-period  of  the  Church 
has  matched ;  preaching  that  did  its  mighty  work  apart 
from  speculative  philosophies  of  religion;  preaching 
that  has  never  died  out  from  the  memoiy  or  the  use 
of  loyal  and  intelligent  disciples  of  the  Catholic  faith ; 
preaching  that  the  Church  has  always  made  a  necessity, 


392        The  Ministry  and  ''the  New  Theology" 

not  merely  a  preference,  by  her  Sacred  Year,  with  its 
vivid,  continuous,  almost  dramatic  recital,  in  her  ritual 
for  the  people,  and  in  her  forms  of  the  altar,  of  the 
facts  of  our  Lord's  life. 

The  New  Theology,  however,  has  as  yet  only  partially 
done  its  work  in  this  direction.  It  will  have  to  enter 
on  a  fresh  stadium  of  its  education,  before  it  can  do  it 
fully.  It  remains  that  it  learn  for  itself,  and  that  it 
teach  all  who  are  inclined  to  follow  its  lead,  that  this 
sort  of  preaching  can  take  permanent  hold,  and  become 
a  living  power,  only  as  it  shall  put  at  its  back  an  order 
of  worship  that  rehearses  day  by  day,  in  creed  and 
prayers  and  sacrament,  the  historic  facts  which  it  han- 
dles. 

Finally,  then,  it  may  be  said  in  all  soberness  and 
candor,  that  the  really  good  fruit  of  the  New  Theology 
is  as  old  as  the  Church  itself,  and  that  all  the  rest  must 
be  classed  with  the  new  philosophies  of  man  and  nature, 
and  the  new  phases  of  religious  thought  springing  out 
of  them,  containing  much  that  is  attractive,  curious,  and 
profound,  but  whose  ultimate  uses  and  fortunes  are  yet 
things  of  the  future. 


LECTURE   XII. 

CHARACTER. 

Character  is  the  highest  expression  of  the  whole 
man.  It  organizes  for  practical  influence  the  vital 
forces  of  our  personality.  It  gathers  into  itself,  and 
combines  for  present  uses,  together  with  all  lower  ele- 
ments of  thought,  life,  and  temperament,  whatever  there 
may  be  in  us  of  knowledge,  culture,  will-power,  expe- 
rience, moral  conviction,  spiritual  sympathy,  devout  aspi- 
ration. Character  is  needed  to  work  upon  character. 
As  it  is  an  effect  of  all  influences  that  have  wrought  in 
us,  so  it  is  the  most  powerful  cause,  under  God,  of  all 
changes  to  be  wrought  in  others.  And  as  it  is  the  chief 
end  of  the  Ministry  of  reconciliation  to  lift  individual 
character  more  and  more  out  of  what  is  worst,  and  tow- 
ard what  is  best,  as  God  sees  the  worst  and  the  best,  so 
the  power  of  that  ministi-y  will  depend  upon  the  amount 
of  individual  character  baptized  into  its  own  spirit  which 
it  can  bring  to  bear  upon  its  chief  end. 

In  the  foregoing  lectures,  I  have  discussed  the  con- 
ditions which  help  or  hinder  the  development  of  this 
highest  human  force  in  the  sphere  of  the  Christian 
Ministry :  now  I  am  to  examine  the  force  itself,  and  with 
special  reference  to  what  is  demanded  of  it  in  the  closing 


394  Character. 

years  of  this  century.  The  subject,  however  we  may 
regard  it,  cannot  be  too  often  in  our  thoughts  and  our 
prayers.  Time  was,  when  this  Ministry,  and  the  type 
of  individual  character  intended  always  to  be  an  inherent 
part  of  it,  were  absolutely  new  to  the  world.  Both  were 
among  the  gifts  of  Pentecost,  and  began  with  the  first 
Apostles.  Anterior  to  these,  mankind  knew  nothing  of 
a  stewardship,  an  office  with  a  character  to  match  it, 
devoted,  as  to  its  governing  object,  to  a  perpetual  warfare 
against  human  ignorance  and  human  sin.  It  was  one 
of  the  great  innovations  of  Christianity,  to  assign  to  a 
permanent  and  definite  place  among  the  recognized  pur- 
suits of  life  a  call  and  mission  which  set  before  a  man 
as  his  appointed  work  the  teaching,  comforting,  warning, 
elevating  of  human  souls,  by  the  communication  of  the 
grace  and  truth  and  peace  of  Christ.  We  can  imagine, 
but,  save  in  rarest  instances,  can  scarcely  hope  to  re- 
produce in  the  fervor  and  energy  of  its  first  appearance 
among  men,  the  type  of  character  spontaneously  gener- 
ated by  this  sublime  vocation.  What  was  once  new  is 
now  old ;  what  once  appeared  as  a  creative,  original 
force,  has  now  an  established  and  familiar  place  amid 
our  habits  of  thought  and  life.  It  might  have  been 
expected  that  this  force  would  improve  with  the  lapse 
of  time.  Its  varied  fortunes  through  the  .Christian 
centuries  have,  indeed,  vastly  enriched  its  experience  ; 
but  they  have  not  raised  it  to  a  higher  level.  Use 
and  custom  have  dulled  its  finer  edges.  In  taking  on, 
as  was  inevitable,  a  professional  cast,  and  falling  into 
lines  of  activity  running  on  parallel  with  those  of  the 
ordinary  pursuits  of  men,  it  dropped  into  routine  and 


Character.  395 

commonplace,  and  through  these  into  poverty  and  dete- 
rioration of  motive.  Earnest  purpose  and  commanding 
service  have  not  saved  it  from  the  lowered  tone  and 
dulness  of  spirit  which  invade  sooner  or  later  all  the 
callings  of  real  life :  so  that  to-day  we  have  to  deal  with 
it,  not  only  as  a  thing  of  noble  aims  and  inspirations, 
bearing  on  its  face  the  traces  of  a  heavenly  origin,  but 
also  as  subject  to  the  torpor  and  slackness  that  human 
nature  is  sure  to  carry  into  its  highest  employments. 

We  have  not  to  construct  a  new  ideal  of  priestly 
character,  or  to  set  up  a  fresh  standard  of  priestly  duty. 
Both  these  are  behind  us.  They  began  with  the  Chris- 
tian Priesthood,  and  have  lived  on  unchanged  by  the 
changes  among  which  it  has  done  its  work.  Whatever 
the  improvements,  the  innovations,  or  the  special  m-gen- 
cies  of  this  generation,  it  has  nothing  to  add  to  the 
original  ideal  or  the  original  standard.  Both  emanated 
from  the  perfect  Ministry  of  our  perfect  Lord,  and  both 
are  as  perpetual  as  the  Sacred  Office  which  he  instituted. 
Mankind,  when  left  to  themselves,  and  even  when  under 
the  sway  of  Christian  influence,  modify,  from  age  to  age, 
their  ideal  of  moral  character,  however  they  may  leave 
unaltered  the  standard  of  right  and  wrong.  But  the 
Christian  Priesthood,  because  of  its  source,  its  authority, 
its  purpose,  can  essentially  change  neither.  We  have, 
then,  a  fixed  ideal  and  a  fixed  standard ;  and  these  not 
merely  in  the  form  of  a  written  record  or  historic  por- 
traiture, but  definitely  and  unchangeably  embodied  in 
the  Son  of  man,  the  Great  Shepherd  and  Bishop  of 
souls.  Thus  the  subject  is  lifted  at  once  out  of  the  realm 
of  a  fluctuating  moral  taste,  and  equally  out  of  that  of 
speculative  imagination. 


396  Character. 

My  next  thought  is,  that,  while  character  in  the  long 
line  of  the  Priesthood  has  shown  wide  variations,  it  has 
never  for  any  considerable  time  radically  fallen  away 
from  its  primitive  type.  It  has,  so  to  speak,  shifted  its 
centre  of  gravity,  as  the  Church  has  shifted  hers,  amid 
the  vicissitudes  of  history.  It  has  been  active  and  con- 
templative, aggressive  and  stationary,  missionary  and 
pastoral,  itinerant  and  parochial,  educated  and  ignorant, 
refined  and  rude,  energetic  and  lethargic,  zealous  and 
indifferent,  watchful  and  careless,  self-denying  and  self- 
indulgent,  living  in  the  light  and  life  of  the  Master,  and 
living,  too,  under  the  broken  and  shadowed  reflection  of 
both.  And  yet,  whatever  its  variations  or  accretions,  it 
has  never  been  without  the  image  and  superscription  of 
Him  who  gave  it  being. 

Now,  what  we  have  to  do  with  this  character  is  to 
disentangle  it  from  these  variations  and  accretions  in 
the  past,  and  to  study  it  afresh  under  the  twofold  light 
of  its  own  Divine  ideal,  and  of  its  providential  relations 
to  the  present  and  to  the  near  future.  The  light  is  two- 
fold, because  it  is  the  light  from  Christ  as  the  author 
of  the  Ministry  of  reconciliation  and  of  the  character 
bound  up  with  it,  —  both  given  to  the  Church  at  a  cer- 
tain time  and  place;  and  because  it  is  the  light  from 
Christ  as  He  works  perpetually  through  the  Church  in 
history,  ordering  thereby  the  needs  and  the  duties  of 
His  ordained  deputies,  as  He  orders  the  relations  to 
the  world  and  humanity  within  which  they  must  work. 

The  question,  then,  before  us,  is  to  ascertain,  in  view 
of  these  relations,  what  aspects,  what  gifts,  what  graces, 
of  the  priestly  character,  are  now  to  be  chiefly  relied 


Character.  397 

upon  to  advance  it  to  a  higher  level  of  power  and  in- 
fluence. In  this  inquiiy,  philosophy,  science,  art,  litera- 
ture, society,  the  nation  can  help  us  only  as  they  enter 
into  the  relations  under  which  this  character  is  to  per- 
form its  tasks.  Before  all  else  we  must  study  the  Divine 
ideal  after  which  it  was  patterned  at  the  start,  and  in 
virtue  of  which  it  is  the  property  of  no  one  age,  but 
equally  of  all  ages,  with  an  aim  as  universal  as  the  re- 
demption of  man  combining  a  faculty  of  adaptation  as 
varied  as  the  needs  of  man. 

To  see  how  the  character  of  the  living  Ministry,  as 
representing  this  ideal,  should  speak  to  this  age,  let  us 
place  side  by  side  some  of  the  salient  features  of  both. 
Whatever  we  find  in  the  ideal,  we  ought  to  find  in  some 
degree,  broken  and  diluted  though  it  be,  in  the  charac- 
ter that  represents  and  pleads  for  it  before  the  world ; 
and  whatever  we  find  in  the  age  needing  reconstruction 
or  amendment,  describes  the  wants  which  that  character, 
with  its  cognate  forces,  was  ordained  of  God  to  remedy. 

I.  First,  then,  this  age  is  overweighted  and  blinded 
by  an  excess  of  the  time-  and  world-spirit.  It  clings  to 
the  seen  and  earthly,  as  opposed  to  the  unseen  and 
eternal.  When  it  speaks  of  the  spiritual,  it  commonly 
means  simply  matter  so  refined  as  to  elude  the  senses ; 
and,  when  it  speaks  of  endless  duration,  it  means  the 
eternity  of  matter.  Its  thought  and  feeling,  its  moral 
convictions  are  often  treated  as  only  sublimated  forms 
of  matter,  or  as  outgrowths  from  experiences  whose 
roots  reach  down  into  the  material  organism.  It  is  so 
doubtful  whether  or  no  there  be  a  soul,  that  it  prefers 
to  take  the  risk  of  losing  it  if  it  can  be  sure  of  gaining 


398  Character. 

the  world  that  now  is.  Or,  again,  to  put  it  in  another 
shape,  it  places  nature  above  the  supernatural,  and 
knows  no  real  world  outside  the  former.  It  inclines  to 
the  belief  that  moral  liberty,  or  man's  self-determining 
power,  is  a  delusion,  and  that  the  only  real  guardian- 
ship is  to  be  found  in  immutable  law.  Naturalism  is 
its  favorite  touchstone  of  truth  in  religion,  in  morals, 
and  in  all  the  processes  of  life.  Its  general  attitude  is 
radically  the  reverse  of  that  which  Christianity  declares 
to  be  the  only  true  one  for  man  constituted  as  it  repre- 
sents him  to  be.  Therefore,  of  necessity,  it  not  only 
narrows  the  domain  of  faith,  but  drops  a  blind  at  every 
turn  over  the  eye  of  faith ;  and  in  this  sense  it  may  be 
said  to  be  a  pre-eminently  faithless  age,  doing  its  work 
as  best  it  can  "  without  God  and  without  hope."  And 
so  it  has  come  to  pass,  that  the  only  really  positive 
service  is  that  for  humanity  and  the  present  world,  and 
the  only  uncertain  and  indefinite  service  is  that  for  God 
and  the  world  to  come.  Practically  the  idea  is  largely 
abandoned,  of  attempting  to  maintain  any  proportion 
between  the  claims  respectively  of  the  two  worlds; 
because,  in  the  common  estimate,  there  is  really  but 
one  world.  Such  is  the  thought  of  the  reigning  philos- 
ophy, and  the  moral  temper  of  the  multitude  responds 
to  it.  Its  chill  penetrates  beyond  its  own  lines,  and  is 
felt  in  our  average  Christian  life.  Too  many  are  there 
among  us,  who,  without  any  formal  surrender  of  theu" 
belief,  or  open  departure  from  habits  and  associations 
built  up  on  their  belief,  have  fallen  away,  under  the 
dominant  influence  of  the  time,  from  all  vital  trust  in 
the  covenant  promises  of  God  as  revealed  in  his  Word 


Character.  399 

and  witnessed  to  by  his  Church.  Certainly  intense 
religious  convictions,  feiTent  experiences  of  the  soul's 
wants  and  of  God's  gifts,  a  profound  sense  of  things 
invisible  and  eternal,  are  not  among  the  marked  char- 
acteristics of  our  prevailing  Christianity. 

Now,  there  is  wanted  in  the  character  of  our  Chris- 
tian leaders  and  pastors  more  of  that  quality  which 
shall  be  to  this  aspect  of  the  times  what  water  is  to 
the  thirsty  ground,  or  flame  to  the  frost,  —  even  faith, 
the  new  sense,  the  second-sight  of  the  soul,  that  gives 
us  the  substance  of  things  hoped  for,  the  evidence  of 
things  not  seen ;  not  without  relations  to  reason  and 
conscience,  but  really  an  intuitive  perception  which 
habitually  pierces  the  veil  of  sense,  and  rests  on  the 
Invisible  and  Eternal  Personal  God.  The  word  is  often 
enough  on  the  popular  tongue.  Men  have  much  to 
say  of  faith  in  the  future,  faith  in  their  destiny,  faith 
in  progress,  faith  in  humanity,  meaning  thereby  little 
more  than  faith  in  themselves ;  but  that  is  quite  an- 
other faith  which  is  wrought  in  us  by  the  Holy  Spirit, 
and  joins  us  to  Christ  the  living  Head.  The  one  is 
only  a  vague  and  dreamy  grasp  on  things  hoped  for 
from  an  earthly  stand-point,  with  no  thought  of  sacrifice 
for  things  the  other  side  the  veil ;  the  other  kindles 
into  activity  the  inmost  energies  of  the  soul,  and  puts 
them  at  the  service,  not  only  of  the  fortunes  of  our 
race  on  this  planet,  but  of  the  destiny  of  its  individual 
members  in  the  eternal  world.  This  faith  is  in  itself 
the  highest  form  of  power,  because  it  makes  us  sharers 
of  God's  power  in  the  discipline  and  development  of 
humanity.     It  was  by  this  power  that  the  men  of  old 


400  Character. 

"  subdued  kingdoms,  wrought  righteousness,  obtained 
promises,  stopped  the  mouths  of  lions,  quenched  the 
violence  of  fire,  escaped  the  edge  of  the  sword,  out 
of  weakness  were  made  strong,  waxed  valiant  in  fight, 
turned  to  flight  the  armies  of  the  aliens."  ^  This  was 
the  power  that  upheaved  the  fabrics  of  Judaistic  race- 
selfishness  and  of  Greek  and  Koman  paganism,  and  on 
their  ruins  built  the  foundations  of  Christianity.  This 
was  the  power  that  evolved  from  the  barbaric  anarchy  of 
the  after-ages  the  characteristic  elements  of  our  modern 
life.  This  was  the  power  that  fought  the  great  fight  of 
the  Reformation,  reviving  in  some  measure  the  Gospel's 
original  impulse  and  the  Church's  primitive  order.  This 
was  the  power,  that,  working  in  the  great  Plantagenet 
kings  and  statesmen,  made  England  what  it  has  been 
as  a  bulwark  of  authority,  order,  and  liberty.  This 
was  the  power,  too,  that  planted  and  nourished,  with 
toil  and  tears  and  death,  the  beginnings  of  our  American 
life.  Indeed,  apart  from  it,  there  has  been  no  beneficent 
greatness  of  any  sort  in  the  past  eighteen  hundi-ed  years. 
Now,  the  world-spirit,  whether  in  the  form  of  scep- 
ticism, or  mammon- worship,  or  light-hearted  pleasure, 
takes  it  for  granted,  in  all  its  estimates  of  the  Christian 
religion,  that  there  has  been  a  loss  of  this  power  in  the 
Christian  body  generally,  and  eminently  in  the  Chris- 
tian Ministry,  and  a  corresponding  loss  in  the  influence 
of  both.  Says  a  brilliant  anti-Christian  writer,  "  We 
laugh  at  the  scholastic  nonsense  of  Irenseus,  and  are 
disgusted  at  the  unseemly  violence  of  Tertullian ;  but 
these  men  were  ready  to  die  for  their  beliefs,  and  we 
1  Heb.  xi.  33,  34. 


Character.  401 

are  not "  —  as  well  we  the  priests  of  infidelity,  as  you 
the  priests  of  Christianity.  This  assumption  would  not 
be  put  forth  in  this  matter-of-course  way,  were  it  alto- 
gether groundless ;  and  the  only  way  to  meet  it,  and  the 
diminished  respect  for  our  ordef  that  it  implies,  is  to 
prove  that  the  old  power  still  lives,  that  "  all  things 
are  "  still  "  possible  to  him  that  believeth,"  that  faith  in 
God  and  in  the  supernatural  agencies  of  His  Kingdom 
is  still  the  greatest  of  forces  that  can  move  the  human 
soul,  and  that  the  sense  of  the  Unseen  and  Eternal  can 
still  fire  our  energies  with  irresistible  enthusiasm  for 
truth  and  righteousness.  And  I  may  add,  this  side  of 
Christian  character  in  general,  and  especially  of  Minis- 
terial character,  demands  a  fresh  stimulus,  not  only 
because  of  the  vagueness  and  lassitude  that  have  crept 
over  our  Christian  motive-power,  but  also  because  of 
the  evils  that  threaten  our  Christian  civilization.  We 
are  on  the  verge  of  grave  changes  in  the  industrial, 
monetary,  and  social  order  of  modern  life.  The  revo- 
lutions at  the  beginning  of  this  century  related  chiefly 
to  the  structure  of  civil  government,  the  extension  of 
civil  rights.  How  these  loosened  the  bands  of  order, 
and  stirred  the  passions  of  men,  we  need  no  one  to  re- 
mind us ;  and  we  as  little  need  any  prophet  to  tell  us 
how  the  revolutionary  movements  at  its  close  will  be 
kindled  into  frenzy  by  questions  of  wages  and  property 
and  social  rights.  To  surmount  these  coming  perils 
with  safety  and  honor,  will  task,  as  they  have  scarcely 
ever  been  tasked  before,  the  devotion,  the  unselfishness, 
and  courage  of  both  Church  and  State.  And  it  belongs 
to  us  of  the  Christian  Ministry  to  decide  whether  the 


402  Character, 

productive  cause  of  the  highest  moral  force  shall  be 
there,  and  equal  to  the  emergency. 

I  have  not  dwelt  on  the  need  of  a  stronger  and 
clearer  faith,  to  enable  us  to  work  on  hopefully  and 
earnestly  in  the  use  of  means  in  the  Church  that  have 
no  obvious  or  traceable  relation  to  their  ends,  and  to 
meet  the  kindred  trial  arising  from  the  long  delay  often 
interposed  between  the  planting  and  the  harvest.  This 
falls  so  obviously  within  the  ordinary  range  of  our  dis- 
cipline, that  it  can  best  be  left  there  without  comment. 

How,  then,  is  clerical  character  to  re-enforce  itself 
with  this  commanding  power  of  faith  demanded  so 
imperatively  by  the  tendency  of  these  times "?  I  reply. 
By  a  closer  and  more  devout  study  of  its  own  Divine 
ideal,  the  character  of  the  Son  of  man.  To  Him  alone 
can  we  go  for  the  light,  the  life,  the  energy,  the  grasp 
on  the  unseen  and  eternal,  and  with  them  the  intre- 
pidity, patience,  humility,  and  fervor,  required  by  the 
environments  of  the  Sacred  Office.  He  only  perfectly 
combined  the  work  of  time  and  human  life  with  that 
which  is  beyond  sight  and  time  ;  dwelling  on  earth,  yet 
never  for  a  moment  divided  from  heaven ;  in  perpetual 
and  most  intimate  communion  with  God,  and  yet  en- 
grossed in  the  rude,  hard  work  and  sufferings  by  which 
He  set  up  among  men  the  Father's  Kingdom ;  pressed 
by  the  labor  and  care,  the  details  and  calls,  of  the  busiest 
Ministry,  and  yet  eternity,  like  a  luminous  background, 
looming  up  behind  all  that  He  says  and  does ;  "  living 
a  life  of  unwearied  service,  and  yet  a  life  of  absolute 
heavenly-mindedness ;  habitually  devoted  to  his  brethren, 
yet  always  one  with  the  thought  and  will  of  God ; " 


Character.  403 

with  a  faith  so  perfectly  balanced,  so  transcendently 
clear,  that  it  recognized  all  in  the  world  that  could  claim 
a  human  interest,  and  yet  that  ranged  on  unfettered 
wings  over  the  ages,  and  beheld  issues  in  eternity  as 
already  realized  in  time.  It  is  not  in  us  to  mount  to 
such  a  height ;  but  it  is  allowed  us  to  breathe  its  at- 
mosphere, to  feed  on  its  inspiration,  and  so  to  grow 
toward  it. 

II.  Again :  it  is  now  apparently  more  than  ever  the 
besetting  temptation  of  mankind,  to  take  false  views  of 
what  alone  is  real  and  great  in  life ;  to  reverse  the  pro- 
portion that  God  has  established  among  the  objects  of 
human  pursuit ;  to  mistake  shadow  for  substance,  dreams 
and  visions  for  facts,  and  things  that  are  to  pass  away 
for  things  that  are  to  endure.  Thus  the  souls  of  men 
are  given  over  to  cheats  and  delusions  respecting  what 
it  most  concerns  them  to  see  and  know  as  it  is ;  and  at 
critical  moments  in  the  lives  of  individuals  and  peoples,  a 
cry,  as  of  pathetic  despaii*,  fills  the  air,  Who  will  show 
us  any  good?  Who  will  lead  us  to  the  rock  that  is 
stronger  than  we  %  This,  it  is  often  claimed,  is,  more 
than  any  other  that  has  gone  before  it,  a  truth-loving, 
truth-speaking  age ;  an  age  bent  upon  getting  at  facts, 
and  averse  to  all  shams ;  an  age  passionately  devoted 
to  criticism  and  investigation,  with  a  view  to  making 
an  end  of  prejudices  and  superstitions  and  false  idols 
of  every  name.  No  one  will  dispute  this  claim  when  it 
is  confined  to  things  that  fall  in  with  the  dominant 
impulses  and  favorite  ends  of  the  age;  that  flatter  its 
pride  of  achievement,  minister  to  the  exaltation  of  intel- 
lect, promote   riches  and   power,  pleasure   and   glory, 


404  Character. 

and  generally  help  on  man's  control  over  the  world 
that  now  is.  On  the  other  hand,  this  claim  has  to  be 
seriously  discounted  when  the  age  is  confronted  by  the' 
highest  ends  of  life,  and  the  discipline  of  belief,  motive, 
and  self-restraint  needful  for  the  attainment  of  these 
ends.  Start  the  old  problems  of  duty;  apply  the  old 
tests  of  obedience  to  an  authority  not  of  its  own  crea- 
tion, and  of  a  righteousness  transcending  its  own  stand- 
ards ;  challenge  its  ownership  of  the  world ;  scale  the 
relative  importance  of  the  objects  of  human  pursuit  con- 
trary to  its  tastes ;  invade  its  lust  of  the  flesh  and  lust  of 
the  eyes;  curb  its  pride  of  life;  smite  the  idols  of  its 
ambition;  let  in  upon  its  gathered  treasures  and  its 
haunts  of  revelry  the  warning  from  an  unseen  world  of  a 
judgment  to  come,  —  ti-y  this,  and  see  how  it  will  crowd 
into  the  forum  of  the  great  debate,  special  pleadings, 
sophistries,  equivocations,  false  apologies.  On  all  this 
side  of  its  life,  so  far  from  being  better,  it  is  really 
worse,  than  its  predecessors ;  and  it  i*  only  a  silly 
optimism  that  would  speak  of  it  as  truth-loving  and 
truth-speaking.  So  far  from  being  inclined  to  either, 
it  loves  darkness  rather  than  light  on  most  subjects  on 
which  God  has  revealed  His  mind  to  man.  The  intel- 
lect of  the  day  puts  forth  special  pretensions  to  candor 
and  breadth  in  its  opposition  to  the  dogmatic  statements 
of  the  essential  truths  of  Christianity.  It  gives  many 
reasons  for  this  opposition ;  but,  when  sifted,  these  rea- 
sons point  to  another  deeper  than  themselves.  The 
statements  are  disliked,  not  because  they  are  dogmatic, 
but  because  of  the  truths  they  embody.  It  is  idle  to 
arraign  them  as  involving  the  "  stagnation  of  thought," 


Character.  405 

or  "  the  imprisonment  of  thought,"  or  "  the  paralysis  of 
thought."  The  real  grievance  is,  that  they  demand  a 
submission  of  thought  which  much  of  the  intellect  of 
the  time  will  not  yield ;  and  yet  the  submission  is  the 
same  in  degree  with  that  demanded  by  all  other  ascer- 
tained truth.  The  trouble  is,  the  submission  is  different 
in  kind,  involving,  as  it  does,  the  will  as  well  as  the 
intelligence. 

But  this  reference  to  the  bearing  of  the  age  toward 
Christian  dogma  is  only  by  way  of  illustrating  its  gen- 
eral estimate  of  the  contents  and  aims  of  life  so  far  as 
they  are  affected  by  the  inherent  truth  of  things,  and 
especially  of  the  highest  things.  As  we  have  seen  how 
•in  this  relation  it  comes  behind,  and  in  what  it  fails,  so 
we  see  what,  in  the  same  relation,  the  character  of  the 
Clergy  must  be  expected  to  supply.  They  are  ministers 
of  God  only  as  they  are  ministers  of  truth,  and  they  are 
ministers  of  truth  only  as  they  are  witnesses  and  exam- 
ples of  truth,  and  they  are  these  only  as  they  are  ready 
to  be  so  at  any  risk,  at  any  cost,  even  though  they  be 
driven  to  the  desert  and  the  caves  of  the  mountains,  or 
to  the  sackcloth  and  ashes  of  personal  abasement,  or  to 
the  locusts  and  wild  honey  of  personal  denial.  They 
must  be  simply,  severely  true  in  the  search  for  truth,  in 
the  proclamation  of  truth,  in  the  guardianship  of  truth, 
and  in  the  application  of  truth  to  themselves  and  to 
others ;  and  this  as  opposed  to  all  the  hidden  dishon- 
esties of  conviction,  and  hypocrisies  of  profession,  and 
adulterations  of  motive,  which  mankind  are  quick  to 
condone  because  so  few  are  in  a  position  to  cast  the 
fu'st  stone.     They  are  to  be  simply  and  severely  true  as 


406  Character. 

reflecting  the  unspeakable  seriousness  and  earnestness  of 
the  Gospel's  view  of  life,  and  as  exhibiting  a  mind  and 
spirit,  a  zeal  and  energy,  proportionate  to  the  gravity 
and  nobleness  of  the  vocation  to  which  they  have  been 
set  apart.  Facing  every  thing,  whether  it  be  error,  or 
vice,  or  wretchedness,  or  the  misleading  pomps  of  the 
world,  without  disguise  or  mistake,  and  planting  them- 
selves on  unshrinking,  unexaggerated  truth,  they  are 
to  be  simply  and  severely  true  to  their  message  as  the 
Prophets  and  Priests  of  the  Great  Master  of  truth  and 
reality.  They  are  to  be  as  straightforward,  thorough, 
and  complete,  as  are  the  facts  of  life.  Upon  riches, 
business,  learning,  art,  it  matters  not  what,  they  are  to 
impose  the  serious  and  high  view  of  conduct,  never  the 
low  and  self-indulgent  one.  Let  what  will  happen, 
they  are  to  hold  up,  in  its  inexorable  claims,  the  noblest 
ends  of  human  action;  to  diive  home  to  the  inmost  soul 
of  this  generation  the  truth  that  the  greatest  power,  the 
greatest  knowledge,  the  greatest  liberty,  is  the  greatest 
trust.  They  are  to  stand  for  the  duties  of  men,  in  an 
age  which  thiilks  chiefly  of  the  rights  of  men.  They 
are  to  stand  for  authority,  in  an  age  bent  upon  having 
its  own  way,  and  being  a  law  to  itself.  They  are  to 
stand  for  the  unseen  and  eternal  world,  for  its  warn- 
ings, its  mysteries,  its  imperishable  realities,  at  a  time 
when  men  are  turning  itching  ears  to  the  new  "  gospel 
of  the  secular  life."  They  are  to  stand  for  fonts  and 
altars  and  pulpits  and  sanctuaries,  and  all  that  concerns 
the  worship  of  the  Triune  God,  when  the  world  is  drift- 
ing off"  into  the  worship  of  itself,  finding  the  only  god 
it  cares  to  know  in  its  own  mechanisms  of  matter  and 


Character.  407 

force.  Finally,  they  are  to  stand  for  the  salvation  of 
humanity  through  Jesus  Christ,  in  an  age  when  hu- 
manity is  coming  to  believe  more  and  more  that  it  can 
save  itself. 

Here,  too,  our  strength  and  sufficiency  are  of  Christ, 
the  everlasting  Son  of  God,  the  sovereign  ideal  of  the 
IMinistry  whereunto  we  are  called.  He  saw,  as  they  are, 
all  being  and  life.  He  knew,  as  it  really  is,  what  is 
in  man  and  nature.  Past,  present,  and  future  were  to 
Him  all  one.  To  Him,  the  farthest  ends,  the  remotest 
destinies,  w^ere  as  things  already  consummated.  The 
plummet  thrown  by  His  hand  went  to  the  bottom ;  the 
measuring-rod  he  used  scaled  with  absolute  accuracy  the 
motives,  the  ends,  the  callings  of  men.  In  manifesting 
the  eternal  life.  He  entered  into,  and  held  at  its  true 
worth,  this  time-life,  which  was  to  be  taken  up  into  His 
own  life.  Before  His  eye,  the  shows  of  things  dissolved 
as  vapor  before  the  sun,  and  their  underlying  reality, 
their  essential  truth,  came  forth  as  the  earth  from  the 
darkness  at  the  dawn  of  day.  With  such  insight  into 
all,  with  such  mastery  over  all,  nothing  in  His  character 
or  conduct,  perhaps,  so  profoundly  impresses  us  as  the 
matter-of-course  way  in  which  He  treats  as  valueless 
to  Himself  precisely  those  things  which  most  stir  the 
desires  and  ambitions  of  mankind.  As  the  Master  of 
truth,  he  seems  to  say  to  us  that  He  cannot  deal  truth- 
fully with  human  life  without  a  radical  reversal  of  its 
aims  and  methods,  making  that  to  be  greatest  which 
men  hold  to  be  least,  and  that  to  be  least  which  men 
hold  to  be  greatest  <9  and  this  with  regard  to  their  rights 
and  duties,  their  callings  and  capabilities,  their  hopes 


408  Character. 

and  ambitions,  their  successes  and  failures.  When  they 
talk  of  the  world,  and  of  what  it  owes  them  or  of  what 
they  owe  to  it,  He  tells  them,  in  words  that  seem  vague 
because  they  mean  so  much,  about  the  treasure  in  heaven, 
the  single  eye,  the  pearl  of  great  price,  the  taking  of 
the  kingdom  of  heaven  by  force,  the  impossibility  of 
giving  any  thing  in  exchange  for  the  soul ;  and  in  tell- 
ing them  so.  He  is  only  setting  forth  the  reality,  the 
truth  of  things,  and  with  this  truth,  the  other  truth, 
the  other  reality,  involved  in  the  proportion  in  which 
God  has  placed  things,  one  as  above  or  below  another, 
and  in  which  human  zeal  and  energy  are  to  be  expended 
upon  them.  It  is  because  of  man's  obstinate  and  fatal 
neglect  of  what  he  says  in  this  direction,  that,  as  with 
a  cry  of  pain,  the  words  are  wrung  from  him,  "  Many 
are  called,  but  few  are  chosen  ; "  "  Strait  is  the  gate,  and 
narrow  the  way,  and  few  there  be  that  find  it ;  "  "  How 
hardly  shall  they  that  have  riches  enter  into  the  kingdom 
of  God !  "  It  is  this  knowledge  of  human  nature,  this 
view  of  its  false  leanings  and  its  one-sided  judgments, 
that  determine  Christ's  preference,  and,  if  we  be  His, 
GUI'  preference,  for  the  hard  lot  and  the  bitter  side  of 
life,  for  mourning,  for  poverty,  for  persecution,  for  the 
blessing  on  those  of  whom  men  speak  ill.  The  Master 
was  only  simply,  severely  true,  when  He  poured  these 
sharp  words  into  the  world's  ear.  It  is  well  that  we 
should  often  hear  them  as  we  go  on  in  our  work  of 
'building  our  own  characters  and  the  characters  of  those 
to  whom  we  minister.  They  stand  for  the  price,  that 
in  some  shape,  in  some  degree,  sooner  or  later,  each  of 
•US  must  pay  for  all  true  and  high  living,  for  all  attempts 


Character.  409 

at  any  thing  above  the  dead  level  of  custom,  and  in 
accord  with  a  truly  Christian  standard.  "  The  higher 
ends  of  life  —  higher  because  truer  and  more  real  — 
may  be  the  object  of  fervent  effort  where  the  eye  of  the 
looker-on  rests  upon  what  seems  too  busy,  too  exalted, 
or  too  humble  to  be  the  scene  of  the  greatest  of 
earthly  endeavors,  the  inward  discipline  of  the  soul. 
And  yet,  masked  behind  the  turmoil  of  outward  life  or 
the  busy  silence  of  study,  this  discipline  can  and  should 
go  on,  with  its  bitter  surrenders  of  will,  its  keen  self- 
control,  its  brave  welcomings  of  trial,  stern  and  high  in 
its  choice,  stern  in  its  view  of  the  world,  stern  in  its 
judgment  of  itself,  stern  in  its  humility ;  and  all  this 
while  nothing  is  seen  but  the  performance  of  the  common 
round  of  duty,  nothing  is  shown  but  the  playfulness 
which  seems  to  sport  with  life." 

Se  sub  sereiiis  vultibua 
Austera  virtus  occulit, 
Timens  videri,  ne  suum 
Dum  prodit,  amittat  decus. 

III.  We  have  now  so  far  considered  certain  features 
of  life  at  the  close  of  this  century,  as  to  show  why  and 
in  what  ways  the  priestly  character  of  the  day  needs 
more  of  the  faith  which  habitually  discerns  the  unseen 
Father  of  all  in  the  on-goings  and  activities  of  the  pres- 
ent, and  more  of  the  truth-sense,  the  truth-power,  which 
pierces  down  to  the  reality  of  things,  seeing  them  as 
they  are,  not  as  they  seem ;  which  adjusts  conduct  to  the 
pursuits  and  ends  of  life  according  to  their  proportion- 
ate value,  and  distinguishes,  with  a  view  to  its  practical 


410  Character. 

influence  on  the  internal  discipline  of  the  soul,  between 
the  solid  and  the  vain,  the  essential  and  the  accidental, 
the  permanent  and  the  fleeting,  in  the  processes  of  the 
world  and  of  human  life. 

We  have  now  to  notice  a  characteristic  of  the  time^ 
and  a  corresponding  need  in  the  character  of  the  Min- 
istry, of  even  wider  and  deeper  reach.  And  certainly 
much  that  I  shall  say  under  this  head  would  seem  but 
an  ideal  dream,  had  not  the  Son  of  God  gone  before, 
and  made  attainable  what  otherwise  had  been  impossi- 
ble. I  am  to  speak  of  that  quality  in  the  Ministry 
which  God  himself  has  declared  to  be  more  than  any 
other  the  embodiment  of  His  own  being,  and  in  our 
Lord  and  Christ  the  very  power  of  salvation,  —  love. 
Love  perfected,  love  in  the  final  reach  and  use  of  its 
energy  as  a  motive  working  on  the  will,  may  be  a  simple 
affection  possessed  of  an  absolute  oneness  of  character 
and  power ;  but  here  it  will  be  treated  in  its  manifold 
relation  to  other  spiritual  gifts,  as  the  living  root  of 
other  virtues,  and  especially  as  it  circulates,  as  an  ele- 
ment of  warmth  and  vigor  and  attraction,  through  all 
the  higher  moral  forces  of  our  nature  when  created 
anew  in  Christ  Jesus.  When,  therefore,  we  speak  of  it 
as  thus  regarded,  we  mean  not  only  itself  bounded  by 
the  limitations  of  the  word  that  names  it,  but  also  the 
graces  that  it  includes,  and  from  which  it  never  stands 
apart,  —  as  sympathy,  tenderness,  pity,  brotherly  kind- 
ness, long-suffering,  humility,  self-sacrifice,  joy  in  good- 
ness, hatred  of  evil ;  qualities  of  the  supernatural  life, 
because  taken  out  of  nature,  and  enlarged,  purified, 
transfigured  by  the  Divine  life  of  the  Son  of  God.     Let 


Character.  411 

it,  then,  be  understood  that  the  field  of  thought  opened 
to  us  in  discoursing  on  this  theme  is  as  wide  as  that 
described  by  love  and  the  affiliated  virtues  that  it 
nourishes. 

All  sin  may  be  resolved  into  selfishness ;  and,  as  the 
world  is  always  full  of  the  one,  so  it  is  always  full  of 
the  other.  Any  thing  so  continuous  and  universal 
might  be  left  without  comment  or  special  illustration. 
Each  generation,  however,  develops  it  under  fresh  lights, 
and  discloses  it  from  new  angles  of  observation ;  and 
surely  this  one  is  no  exception.  Some  might  charge 
me  with  being  narrow  and  unfair,  insensible  even  to 
the  so-called  great  law  of  evolution  by  which  man  is 
said  to  be  advancing  to  a  wider  and  nobler  life,  were  I 
to  say,  that,  in  changing  somewhat  the  tone  of  its  moral 
life,  shifting  a  little  its  acknowledged  centres  of  thought 
and  aspiration,  this  generation  had  only  altered  the 
forms  without  lessening  the  intensity  of  the  selfishness 
common  to  human  nature  in  all  ages.  And  yet  just 
this  is  what  I  affirm ;  and  I  do  so  in  spite  of  all  the 
philosophy,  poetry,  and  eloquence  affirming  the  con- 
trary. These  will  be  prompt  to  remind  us  of  the  mani- 
fold betterments  of  man's  condition  worked  out  by  this 
century,  of  the  vast  sweep  of  the  orbit  along  which  he 
has  travelled  away  from  a  thousand  dark  and  bad 
things  in  the  past,  and  of  the  great  projects  of  reform 
and  amelioration  which  are  to  render  illustrious  in  his- 
tory the  closing  decades  of  this  century.  We  shall  be 
told  of  the  quickened  sympathies  between  remote  peo- 
ples, of  the  active  philanthropy  that  never  rests  from 
its  errands  of  help  and  mercy,  of  the  thrill  of  pity  sent 


412  Character. 

through  the  common  heart  of  the  world  by  calamity 
and  misfortune  in  any,  the  obscurest  part  of  it.  No 
one,  surely,  with  a  spark  of  manliness  or  Christianity 
in  him,  would  rob  this  aspect  of  our  modern  life  of  a 
single  ray  of  the  glory  thus  shed  upon  it ;  but,  on  the 
other  hand,  no  one  who  means  to  take  in  all  the  facts 
of  our  time,  and  to  judge  it  by  all  the  facts,  will  allow 
himself  to  concede  to  these  manifestations  more  than 
they  deserve.  Let  our  judgment  be  charitable,  sym- 
pathetic ;  but  let  it  also  be  true  and  just.  There  is 
more  in  the  present  estate  of  mankind  to  rejoice  us 
than  ever  before,  and  there  is  also  more  to  sadden  and 
alarm  us ;  so  much,  indeed,  of  the  latter,  as  to  oblige 
us,  with  the  whole  subject  in  view,  to  regard  the  boasted 
humanities  and  tendernesses  and  ameliorations  of  the 
time  as  little  more  than  surface-eddies  playing  over 
the  vast  throbbing  sea  of  human  selfishness.  Looking 
down  into  the  black,  abysmal  depths  of  this  sea,  and 
at  the  stupendous  wreckage  of  rights,  duties,  hopes, 
labors,  fortunes,  sinking  into  or  floating  over  them,  we 
might  well  conclude,  that,  aside  from  the  work  done 
and  doing  by  the  Church  of  God,  the  much-vaunted 
progress  of  the  recent  agesjiad  only  clothed  the  selfish- 
ness of  man  in  more  polished  armor,  and  put  into  its 
hands  more  death-dealing  weapons.  I  may  not  even 
glance  at  the  problems  crowding  upon  us  for  settlement, 
which  are  the  certain  outgrowths  from  this  principle  as 
it  works  in  individuals,  classes,  communities,  nations ; 
problems  of  vice  and  crime,  of  poverty  and  wretched- 
ness, of  contention  and  anarchy,  which  cast  the  dark 
portents   of  coming   convulsions  and  revolutions  over 


Character.  413 

the  closing  years  of  the  century.  That  is  a  stormy  and 
threatening  array  of  enemies  to  its  peace  and  order, 
which  our  civilization,  in  the  day  of  its  greatest  pomp 
and  pretension,  has  raised  along  the  highway  over  which 
lies  its  future  journey.  No  civilization  of  the  past  has 
seen  one  more  formidable.  Who  wonders,  that,  beneath 
its  garlands  and  trophies,  the  tears  of  remorse  are  some- 
times on  its  cheeks,  and  a  cry  of  agony  often  on  its  lips  % 
Since  the  Rome  of  the  Caesars,  some  fifteen  centuries 
have  counted  themselves  off.  There  is  far  less  now 
than  then  of  coarse  cruelty  and  heartless  brutality, 
less  of  beastly  sensuality,  less  of  chains  and  dungeons, 
of  swords  and  axes,  at  the  command  of  irresponsible 
tyrants ;  but  is  there  less  of  the  moral  causes  that 
always  sooner  or  later  create  these  things,  —  less  of  the 
greed  of  riches,  luxury,  pleasure,  less  idolatry  of  wealth 
and  empire,  less  covetousness,  less  pride  and  self-asser- 
tion, less  of  the  disposition  in  man  to  be  his  own  centre, 
his  own  ideal,  his  own  end,  his  own  God?  Who  wiU 
affirm  it?  And  yet  these  are  the  chosen  progeny  of 
selfishness,  that,  wherever  they  have  borne  sway,  have 
raised  to  the  lips  of  nations  the  cup  that  has  first  ine- 
briated, and  then  poisoned  them  unto  death. 

But,  still  further,  the  intellect  as  well  as  the  heart  of 
the  time,  so  far  as  it  is  true  to  its  own  instinct,  is  selfish, 
—  profoundly,  noisily,  proudly  selfish.  I  speak  of  it  as 
a  rule.  No  one  will  need  to  be  told  of  the  exceptions. 
There  are  enough  of  them  to  keep  up  the  spirit  of 
protest  and  rebuke ;  enough  to  scatter  over  our  cult- 
ure the  salt  of  an  opposing  principle,  and  so  to  save  it 
from   the   doom   of  the   older  cultures   of  pagan  life. 


414  Character. 

Somehow  our  much-praised  systems  of  education  have 
trained  a  vast  amount  of  intellect  that  works  for  hire, 
putting  not  only  its  gifts,  but  its  opinions,  its  conscience, 
in  the  market ;  a  vast  amount  that  works  for  applause 
and  reputation,  with  no  moral  end  ahead ;  a  vast  amount 
that  unites  the  offices  of  the  cynic  and  the  sophist, 
coldly,  remorselessly  critical  and  destructive,  rejoiced 
rather  than  alarmed  at  the  ruin  it  works  in  the  souls  of 
plain  people  or  beneath  the  shadow  of  God's  altars ;  a 
vast  amount  more,  that,  with  a  lifelong  stare  at  the  face 
of  nature  and  of  man,  sees  nothing  so  great  as  itself. 
Now,  this,  like  every  kindred  evil,  can  be  overcome  only 
by  good.  It  will  yield  only  to  the  expulsive  power  of  a 
motive  stronger  than  itself;  and  the  only  motive  that  has 
this  power  is  the  love  that  had  its  perfect  revelation  and 
example  in  Christ  Jesus,  the  High-Priest  of  humanity, 
and  the  Author  of  the  Priesthood  committed  to  us.  It 
was  not  in  man  to  discover  this  motive :  it  was  God's 
gift  to  man.  It  came  to  him  with  the  gift  of  eternal 
life.  Love  completing  itself  in  sacrifice  is  life  eternal ; 
and  Christ  is  the  Saviour  of  man,  because,  as  the  perfect 
manifestation  of  this  love,  He  was  also  the  perfect  man- 
ifestation of  life  eternal :  and  this  life  is  in  us  only  as 
love,  which  is  its  animating  soul,  is  in  us.  Love  fulfill- 
ing itself  in  the  sacrifice  of  self  was  made,  through  the 
incarnation  and  death  of  the  Son  of  God,  the  redemptive 
force  of  the  world ;  and  no  man  is  a  complete  sharer 
of  His  Priesthood,  except  as  in  character  and  work,  as 
well  as  in  office,  he  is  a  vehicle  to  others  of  this  redemp- 
tive force,  this  power  of  deliverance  from  the  bondage 
of  selfishness,  and  of  the  sins  which  are  its  oflfspring. 


Character.  415 

As  Christ  loved  us,  and  gave  Himself  for  us,  so  we  are 
to  love  all  for  whom  He  died,  and  to  give  ourselves  for 
them ;  and,  in  doing  so,  to  supplant  in  them  in  Christ's 
name,  and  through  the  operation  of  the  Spirit,  the 
fallen  life  of  nature  with  the  risen  life  of  a  new  creature. 

It  may  be  said.  This  motive  may  be  admirable  and 
beneficent,  but  where  is  the  evidence  of  the  power 
claimed  for  it  %  It  has  had  nearly  two  thousand  years 
of  conflict  with  its  antagonist ;  and  yet,  by  your  own 
showing,  that  antagonist  is  as  prolific  of  evil  as  ever. 
We  reply :  It  has  conquered  enough  hearts  to  show  that 
it  can  conquer  all  hearts ;  and  that  it  has  not  done  so, 
belongs  to  the  double  mystery  of  man's  free  will  and 
God's  patience.  One  thing  is  sure :  if  this  mind,  this 
love  that  was  in  Christ  Jesus,  be  not  the  cure  fur  the 
world's  selfishness  and  for  all  that  springs  out  of  it, 
the  universe  has  none,  and  the  race  is  thrown  back 
upon  the  eternal  dualism  of  good  and  evil.  God  has 
brought  to  bear  the  supreme  motive,  the  sovereign 
energy  of  his  own  moral  being ;  and  there  is  nothing 
behind  it.  That  is  a  mighty  army  of  the  redeemed 
already  camped  in  the  heavenly  places,  but  it  is  only 
the  vanguard  of  the  host  that  is  to  follow.  The  genera- 
tions drop  off  like  leaves  shaken  from  the  tree  of  life. 
The  world  grows  old.  The  race  stumbles  and  staggers 
on  its  course.  But  this  force  of  God,  this  living  energy 
of  a  Divine  deliverance,  this  power  of  victory  over  evil, 
works  on  in  the  undecaying  freshness  of  its  morning 
hour ;  and  it  is  the  strength  and  glory  of  the  Christian 
Priesthood,  that  it  is  the  consecrated  witness  to  this  fact. 

Now,  if  such  be  the  selfishness,  and  consequently  the 


416  Character. 

sin  and  sorrow,  of  these  days,  and  if  this  be  our  line 
of  battle  against  it,  this  the  sign  under  which  we  are 
to  conquer,  what  an  appeal  is  there  in  these  facts  to 
us  to  make  the  most  of  this  Divine  force  in  the  disci- 
pline and  development  of  the  character  of  the  Ministry ! 
This  love,  reaching  out  until  it  consummates  itself,  not 
merely  in  pity,  or  in  patience,  or  in  kindness,  or  in 
resignation  and  humility,  but  in  all  the  countless  forms 
of  self-sacrifice,  may  and  ought  to  utter  itself  in  teach- 
ing, in  sacramental  functions,  in  pastoral  duties,  in 
private  studies,  in  inward  discipline,  in  spiritual  contem- 
plation ;  and  yet  beyond  these  there  is  a  nobler  and 
mightier  channel  of  its  power,  even  character,  or  life 
organized  in  all  its  faculties  for  the  service  and  guidance 
of  humanity.  This,  and  not  words,  or  professions,  or 
badges  and  liveries  of  office,  is  what  the  practical  in- 
stinct of  our  time  demands.  The  more  strongly  to  com- 
mend this  love  as  the  formative  energy  and  crowning 
glory  of  priestly  character,  I  need  not  recall  the  exalted, 
rapturous  language  in  which  it  has  been  preached  and 
sung  by  the  various  schools  of  piety  and  devotion  that 
have  adorned  and  blessed  the  Church  in  bygone  ages, 
— schools  represented  by  Sts.  Chrysostom  and  Bernard, 
by  a  Kempis  and  Savonarola,  by  Pascal  and  Fenelon, 
by  Tauler  and  Spener,  by  Jeremy  Taylor  and  Ken,  by 
Henry  Martyn  and  Keble.  It  is  enough  that  we  fall 
back  upon  the  sober,  serene,  measured  words  of  Evan- 
gelists and  Apostles,  on  whom  was  stamped  the  first 
impression  of  the  life  and  character  of  the  Son  of  man ; 
nay,  upon  the  yet  simpler  words  of  our  Lord  Himself, 
explained  and  certified  as  they  were  by  His  own  exam- 


Character  417 

pie.  Since  He  dealt  with  this  principle,  there  has  been 
no  room  for  conjecture  or  speculation  concerning  it. 
He  was  new  and  without  parallel  in  that  He  planted 
it  as  a  living  heart  at  the  centre  of  all  life.  With  Him 
all  truth,  duty,  worship,  sympathy,  service,  ended  in 
love,.  —  love  inexhaustible  and  infinitely  varied  in  its 
application.  In  Him  the  whole  nature  of  man  —  spirit, 
conscience,  will,  intellect,  feeling  —  was  fused  into  this 
one  commanding  force,  and  as  such  poured  itself  forth 
along  all  the  avenues  of  practical  goodness.  At  one 
time  this  "power  of  salvation"  showed  itself  in  con- 
descension, compassion,  consolation ;  at  another,  in 
healing  the  sick,  casting  out  devils,  forgiving  sins, 
cleansing  souls ;  at  another,  in  preaching  the  Gospel  to 
the  poor,  in  binding  up  the  broken-hearted,  in  setting 
at  liberty  them  that  are  bruised,  in  giving  rest  to  the 
heavy-laden;  and,  at  last,  in  the  absolute  sacrifice  of 
self  on  the  Cross.  It  is  only  as  we  rise  to  the  level 
of  this  conception  of  Christ,  that  the  Sermon  on  the 
Mount  becomes  to  us  what  it  really  is  :  "  not  a  code  of 
precepts,  but  the  expression  of  a  character ;  not  a  chap- 
ter of  law,  but  the  living  interpretation  of  the  Divine 
power  which  had  come  with  Christ  to  regenerate  the 
world."  Oh,  how  deep,  how  real,  how  free,  how  uni- 
versal is  this  power!  How  filled  with  the  fulness  of 
Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Ghost !  How  sublime  the  Min- 
istry commissioned  to  proclaim  and  exemplify  it !  How 
impossible  that  a  Ministry  faithful  to  this  trust  should 
in  this  or  any  other  century  be  less  than  the  foremost 
function  among  men  in  dignity  and  influence ! 

IV.  Finally,  the  Priest's  lips  must  keep  knowledge. 


418  Character. 

In  the  character  demanded  of  him  in  these  days,  he 
must,  to  faith,  truthfulness,  and  love,  as  they  have  been 
portrayed,  add  the  light  that  is  born  of  the  power  to 
think  and  to  know.  This  comes  last  in  the  order  of  our 
thought,  not  because  it  is  the  chief  thing,  but  because 
it  is  the  essential  condition  of  highest  power  in  those 
transcendent  elements  of  character.  To  show  what  the 
Priest  ought  to  know  and  how  he  ought  to  think,  or 
to  set  forth  generally  the  intellectual  status  at  which  he 
should  aim  in  order  to  lift  his  character,  as  a  deputy  of 
Christ,  to  the  required  level  in  these  last  years  of  the 
most  remarkable  of  the  ages,  I  need  not  catalogue  the 
departments  of  knowledge,  or  repeat  the  commonplaces 
about  the  vigor  and  versatility  of  our  nineteenth-century 
intelligence.  It  will  sufB.ce  to  mark  its  animus,  and  out- 
line its  main  currents.  The  human  mind  as  a  whole 
is,  more  than  ever  before,  conscious  of  its  powers,  and 
eager  to  use  them.  It  is  active,  bold,  and  hopeful; 
asking  questions,  pushing  conclusions,  examining  foun- 
dations, interpreting  facts :  doing  all  this  in  various 
tempers  and  with  various  motives ;  sometimes  in  honesty 
and  good-will,  too  often  of  envy  and  strife  and  wanton 
mischief.  Men's  eyes  are  opening  wider  and  wider  on 
the  hitherto  unknown  works  of  God,  and  their  ears  are 
more  and  more  turned  to  catch  fully  and  truly  the  voice 
that  is  heard  through  all  nature,  and  their  hands  are 
grasping  new  and  strange  forces.  Society  itself  is  being 
analyzed  and  sifted  and  catechised,  to  ascertain  what  in 
its  organism  is  divine  and  perpetual,  and  what  is  human 
and  subject  to  change ;  what  in  it  helps  and  what  hin- 
ders the  well-being  of  its  members ;  what  are  the  rela- 


Character.  419 

tions  of  classes  and  interests  and  vocations,  and  what 
are  the  rights  and  duties  growing  out  of  them ;  what 
are  the  sources  of  pauperism  and  crime  and  misery, 
and  what  the  sources  of  prosperity,  order,  and  happi- 
ness. These  are  old  questions,  and  men  have  handled 
them  in  one  way  and  another  for  ages ;  but  they  have 
never  turned  them  up  to  the  light  or  grappled  with 
them  in  such  resolute,  passionate  earnestness  as  now. 
In  civil  government  there  is  less  of  serious  agitation, 
less  of  deep  thoughtfulness,  less  fervor  and  restlessness, 
only  because  men,  in  grounding  the  political  fabric  on 
the  democratic  idea,  can  push  the  distribution  of  power 
no  farther.  The  central  subject,  however,  to-day,  as 
always  in  periods  of  change  and  movement  and  mental 
activity,  is  man's  relations  to  God,  —  religion.  This  is 
the  real  pivot  of  the  intellectual  conflicts  of  the  time.  It 
involves  what  is  deepest  and  highest,  what  is  most  hope- 
ful, fearful,  pathetic  in  life.  The  mind  of  this  genera- 
tion cannot  dismiss  it,  cannot  stand  aloof  from  it.  Now, 
as  ever,  every  battle  with  evil,  every  feeling  of  remorse, 
every  sagging  of  the  will  and  conscience  away  from  the 
liberty  and  truth  which  are  their  heritage,  every  freshly 
opened  grave,  every  glance  into  the  face  of  the  sphinx- 
like future,  —  these,  and  a  thousand  other  nameless 
things,  compel  men,  however  irreligious,  to  think  of 
religion,  and  to  make  all  their  knowledge  subsidiary  to 
the  solution  of  its  problems. 

Now,  standing  abreast  of  all  this,  and  obliged  to  deal 
with  it,  the  ordained  witness  to  God's  greatest  gift,  the 
Minister  of  unseen  and  eternal  realities,  must  not  only 
remember  who  he  is  and   for  what   he  was   sent,  but 


420  Character. 

must  be  man  enough,  intellectually  as  well  as  morally, 
to  compel  others  to  remember  it.  Believing  himself, 
he  must  know  how  to  meet  and  enter  into  the  thoughts 
of  men  who  can  not  or  will  not  believe.  Progress,  ac- 
tivity, energy  of  every  sort,  change,  liberty,  are  around 
and  upon  him.  He  cannot  but  be  swayed  by  them  ;  and 
he  ought  to  know  how  to  make  room  for  them  in  his 
own  thought  and  teaching,  while  he  keeps  and  guards 
the  faith  which  cannot  change.  The  Priest  of  God  is  a 
debtor,  not  only  to  Christ,  who  made  him  what  he  is, 
but  also  to  the  time  in  which  he  lives,  because  it  is  at 
once  the  theatre  and  the  environment  of  his  sacred 
function.  He  owes  it  as  well  to  his  age  and  his  country, 
as  to  the  Church  of  all  ages  and  all  countries,  to  be  not 
only  a  pains-taking  and  hard-working,  but  a  learned, 
Priest.  He  owes  it  to  the  ignorant,  the  restless,  the 
disquieted.  He  owes  it  to  the  doubt  as  well  as  the 
belief  of  the  day.  He  owes  it  to  the  young,  who  look  to 
him  for  guidance  into  the  ways  of  truth  and  righteous- 
ness ;  to  the  mature,  who,  out  on  the  unsteady  sea  of 
inquiry  and  trial,  strain  their  eyes  to  catch  a  glimpse  of 
the  light  that  shall  lead  them  to  the  Father's  house ;  to 
the  old,  who  are  folding  their  tents  for  the  march  into 
eternity ;  and  finally,  and  more  than  all,  he  owes  it  to 
the  Cross  of  the  Son  of  God,  which  claims  the  right  to 
be  enthroned  on  the  heights  of  human  intelligence. 

I  have  nothing  to  urge  as  to  the  variety  or  compre- 
hensiveness of  this  learning.  He  is  not  expected  to 
know  every  thing,  or  to  know  more  than  other  well- 
trained  men  know.  But  he  is  expected  to  know  his 
own   special  subject  in  itself,  and  its  relations  to  the 


Character.  421 

great  branches  of  knowledge,  in  the  way  that  other 
things  are  known  by  those  who  profess  to  cultivate  and 
teach  them.  "  No  man  can  know  every  thing ;  but  the 
men  who  influence  the  thought  of  their  time  are  not 
those  who  ivy  to  know  all  things,  but  those  who  have 
learned  one  thing  so  well  that  they  know,  and  show 
others  also,  what  knowing  means."  It  is  the  trained  fac- 
ulty of  insight,  the  disciplined  power  of  grappling  with 
knotty,  troublesome  themes,  the  mental  poise,  the  com- 
plete balance  of  judgment,  that  can  hold  opposing  truths, 
opposing  questions,  opposing  interests,  in  the  scale,  and 
so  weigh  them  as  not  only  to  discern  what  they  are  in 
themselves,  but  their  mutual  and  necessary  limitations. 
This  is  higher  and  stronger  than  learning.  It  is  the 
flower  and  fruit  of  knowledge,  the  fine  gold  of  the 
intellect. 

Brethren,  "  our  awful  Ministry  starts  from  the  foot  of 
the  Cross  on  which  Jesus  Christ  died,  from  the  grave 
from  which  He  rose,  from  the  mountain  whence  He 
went  up ;  and  it  looks  forward,  as  to  its  close  and  goal, 
to  the  day  when  we  shall  all  stand  before  Him."  We 
are  the  messengers  of  a  Divine  forgiveness,  ministers  of 
a  Divine  reconciliation,  heralds  of  an  everlasting  peace. 
We  are  sent  to  feed  the  flock  of  God,  to  be  gatherers 
of  wandering  souls  into  their  Father's  house,  the  stew- 

* 

ards  of  His  mysteries,  the  preachers  and  prophets  of  the 
Light  of  the  World.  There  are  many  orders  of  work 
in  God's  world,  and  this  is  our  work.  Whatever  else  we 
fail  in,  let  us  not  fail  to  do  what  we  can,  with  God's  help, 
to  bring  our  personal  and  official  character  into  con- 
formity with  this  work.     To  character  and  the  influence 


422  Character. 

that  grows  out  of  it,  more  than  to  any  thing  else,  our 
Lord  committed  His  cause.  In  personal  service,  per- 
sonal devotion,  personal  purity,  personal  holiness.  He 
founded  His  Church.  By  these  it  was  to  stand  ;  apart 
from  these  it  cannot  conquer.  So  far,  then,  as  human 
infirmity  will  allow,  may  we  adopt  as  our  own  the  words 
of  St.  Paul  to  his  fellow-laborers  in  the  Church  of 
Corinth :  "  Giving  no  offence  in  any  thing,  that  the 
Ministry  be  not  blamed:  but  in  all  things  approving 
ourselves  as  the  Ministers  of  God,  in  much  patience,  in 
afflictions,  in  necessities,  in  distresses,  in  stripes,  in  im- 
prisonments, in  tumults,  in  labors,  in  watchings,  in 
fastings ;  by  pureness,  by  knowledge,  by  long-suffering, 
by  kindness,  by  the  Holy  Ghost,  by  love  unfeigned,  by 
the  word  of  truth,  by  the  power  of  God,  by  the  armor  of 
righteousness  on  the  right  hand  and  on  the  left,  by 
honor  and  dishonor,  by  evil  report  and  good  report : 
as  deceivers,  and  yet  true ;  as  unknown,  and  yet  well 
known ;  as  dying,  and,  behold,  we  live ;  as  chastened, 
and  not  killed ;  as  sorrowful,  yet  alway  rejoicing ;  as 
poor,  yet  making  many  rich ;  as  having  nothing,  and  yet 
possessing  all  things."  ^  As  those  ordained  to  speak  for 
Christ  in  these  closing  years  of  this  Nineteenth  Century, 
may  we  so  grow  into  the  likeness  of  His  Ministry,  that 
these  words  will  not  seem  too  strong  or  too  great  to 
embody  our  parting  message  to  the  men  who  will  take 
up  our  work  at  the  dawn  of  the  Twentieth ! 

1  2  Cor.  vi.  3-10. 


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